NH News - "Making room for the Boys"

APRIL 2005

Making room for the Boys

Article by Raylene Nickel
Photos by Mike Boyatt

Four sons all wanted to remain in the family business, so Dad and Mom worked to make it happen.

The dry range land of South Dakota has been good to three generations of the Lindskov family. By the time Les Lindskov's father had retired from the cattle business and handed over the reins of his operation to his son, he had built a cow herd large enough to support another family.

Now it is the son's turn to make room on the land for the next generation. Les and his wife Marcia have four sons who want to be part of the family operation, and the parents are determined to make it happen. They have known this since the boys were small, for at an early age, each of the boys showed an eager interest in the farming operation and wanted to pitch in to help with the work.

Les Lindskov and sons Monte, center, and Bryce.

Bigger Ranch, More Cows

So with their sons' future in mind, Les and Marcia took risks, expanded the ranch, and grew the cow herd and farming operation. Now the three oldest sons already have a firm toehold in agriculture and local businesses.

Monte, 28, and Bryce, 25, are full-time partners in the ranching operation. Mark, 21, and Todd, 18, help out on the ranch as their time permits. Mark runs a local business and Todd will get a college degree in business, then join the family operation, Lindskov Joint Ventures.

"We want to help our sons because we know it's hard to get started in agriculture," said Les, 55. "Farming and ranching offer no get-rich scheme, but it's a wonderful way of life, and it's wonderful to be your own boss. We hope we can help our sons figure out a way to make a living in agriculture."

Accepting Risk

A key part of that help has been the parents' willingness to shoulder the risk involved in expanding the operation. "Marcia and I just decided that building an operation we could pass on to our sons meant taking risks and sometimes pacing the floor a lot of nights over the years," he said. Marcia added: "Working children into a family farm and ranch takes a huge commitment on the parents' part. You've got to be working at something every day."

Mark Lindskov, above, manages the family's hunting lodge.

Yet a family operation has to do more than grow if it is to be viable. It has to operate profitably. This means keeping overhead costs as low as possible in every facet of the business.

Cattle are the main enterprise of the ranch, so much of the cost-cutting focuses on the cow herd, which is spread over six ranch locations. To reduce labor and the need for calving facilities, for instance, mature cows must be able to calve on the open range with minimal supervision.

The cows are purebred Black Angus with calves sired by Charolais herd sires. They like this cross because growthy calves result from the heterosis.

The first calves are born in early April to mature cows on range. They are creep fed throughout the summer and weaned in October, at six months. At weaning, steer calves weigh an average of 650 pounds, and heifers about 625 pounds. These calves, both bulls and heifers, are sold to farmer-feeders, usually in the corn belt.

To get purebred Black Angus replacement heifers back into the cow herd, they save heifers born to their first-calf Black Angus mother cows, which are then bred to Black Angus sires that have proven calving ease. All yearling replacement heifers are heat-synchronized and bred by artificial insemination (AI) to one of two Black Angus sires.

No Calving Difficulties

"The AI program results in very few calving difficulties for our heifers," said Les. The resulting heifers "have good udders and good mothering traits. Besides that, they're easy fleshing, a trait cattle need in order to get through our harsh winters in good shape." To get clean-up bulls for the heifers, Lindskov buys Black Angus bulls from breeders who have purchased breeding stock from Lindskov-Thiel Ranch, a nearby purebred ranching operation the Lindskovs own in partnership with Brent and Nancy Thiel. This ranch has produced both purebred Black Angus and purebred Charolais breeding stock for 124 years. "We try to buy the top end bulls from a large number of our purebred customers," said Les. "This not only gives us the opportunity to have access to top bulls, it also lets us give something back to our customers."

While calving problems are rare among the heifers, it's still a lot of work to calve 500 to 600 cows. Calving in the bitter cold and stormy weather of February and March, they need constant supervision. "We practically live with those heifers," said Les. "Our sons have a bunkhouse built into a barn on the home place, and they check them every two hours for 60 days." During that period Monte and Bryce work full time caring for the heifers. Mark, Todd, and employees help out.

Cost Controls

Part of the Lindskovs' strategy for keeping overhead costs low is spreading the cost of labor and purchased equipment over as many production units as possible. For example, the ranch locations where cows are wintered are serviced by only one chore tractor. Feeding 1,000 head of cows at one location requires only one tractor and the labor of just one person working part time.

Purebred Angus cow with her Charolais-sired calf on the Lindskov ranch.

The cattle are fed alfalfa along with other types of hay. Because the alfalfa is so important for the cattle, they grow 4,000 acres of it. After six or seven years in their semi-arid region, the alfalfa loses much of its productivity. To rejuvenate stands, they rotate the alfalfa with other crops such as spring wheat, oats, sunflowers, corn, garbanzo beans, and milo. The milo provides standing feed for game birds which are a key aspect of their hunting lodge business.

The lodge was set up four years ago as a way to make room in the family business for their sons. Hunters stay at the lodge and are taken on guided hunts in the fall when they hunt partridges, grouse, pheasants, and prairie dogs. In November the prey is deer and antelope, and in spring, wild turkeys. "The hunting business has a lot of potential," said Les, "but we're really only just getting started at it. So far we've gotten clients only by word of mouth, but bookings are increasing."

Hunting Lodge

To accommodate guests they moved a old three-story farmhouse onto their home ranch. Built in 1916, it was once home to two homesteading families. The Lindskovs set the house on a basement, effectively making it a four-story structure. There is a lounge in the basement and room for 15 guests at a time. A nearby bunkhouse has room for another four hunters. Marcia, with the help of three neighbors, prepares three meals a day for hunting guests, including a packed lunch when they are out in the field.

Decision making for the combined family operations, such as what crops to plant and how many replacement heifers to keep, is usually based on the family reaching a consensus. But when it comes to decisions relating to the daily operation of the ranch, each person simply uses his own best judgment.

"The management capability of my sons has gone far beyond my own ability to operate this place," the father admits with satisfaction.

No doubt the love of ranching he and Marcia have instilled in their sons is the foundation for their management skills. With that deep love of ranching running through the generations of their family, it should not be surprising that they have worked so hard to make room on the land for their sons.

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