Ranching on the edge of the Black Hills of South Dakota, near Wasta, has been a tradition for Trask’s family harking back to the Gold Rush days. But Trask Family Seeds is very much a modern family affair that involves nearly every one of Pat’s and RoseMary’s 12 children, who range in age from six to 24. “Our kids have a great zeal for working at all aspects of our family’s operation,” he said.

When sales of seed are strong or bales of hay must be hauled, sons Matt and Nick keep their semis humming up and down the highways delivering the family’s products. Meanwhile, 18-year-old daughter Julie keeps a big round baler clicking up and down the fields, turning out as many as 904 bales in a 30-hour period. Another daughter, Stephanie, windrows around the clock when conditions are just right for haying. The six oldest children own cattle and all help care for the herd.

Conservation Reserve Plantings

The Trasks sell alfalfa and native-grass seeds, such as western wheat grass and green needle grass, all over the United States. Most of their seed goes to local farmers and ranchers who plant it in fields enrolled in the federal government’s Conservation Reserve Program. This voluntary program pays farmers and ranchers to set aside highly erodible fields or those offering benefits to wildlife. Producers seed the fields to grasses or legumes and do not crop, hay, or graze them.

Trask’s alfalfa seed, which is harvested from public varieties, goes to farmers in Eastern states, as well as to hay growers from what Pat calls the Hay Capital of the World, north of Yankton, South Dakota. “I consider those farmers the Hay Kings of the World,” he said. “Old, public varieties of alfalfa are meat and potatoes to those hay dealers.” Unlike proprietary varieties, public varieties are not patented or trademarked and sometimes include a mix of plant genetics.

The public variety of alfalfa Trask grows is called South Dakota Common. It comprises such old varieties as Cossack, Grim, Ranger, and Ladak. Winter hardiness, said Trask, is the strength of these old favorites. Another benefit is the price of their seed, which costs much less than seed from newer varieties. Though these new varieties may produce slightly greater yields because the plants break dormancy earlier in the spring and go into dormancy later in the fall, they’re more susceptible to winter kill, according to Trask.

Varietal Advantages

“We try to produce the best seed quality,” he added. “Our goal is to sell raw, pure, high-germ, all-natural seed, with no inoculant and no coating.” All processing of the seed is done within the state. South Dakota State University tests it for quality, while cleaning and bagging is done at a processing facility in a community nearby. “We sell it in 50-pound bags bearing our family name and insignia,” noted Trask. They handle storage and delivery of the seed, selling it to dealers for $1.50 a pound. The dealers, in turn, resell the seed for $2 a pound.

Production Increase

The Trasks sell one and one-half semi loads of alfalfa seed each year and plan to increase sales to two, even four semi loads. Some of this increase in volume will be produced on land the family recently purchased. They also will buy seed from neighbors.

“About 80 percent of the seed we sell is grown by our neighbors,” said Trask. “Some we acquire through a share agreement in which we harvest seed on a share basis and then buy our neighbor’s share. We pay them a price that is about two to three times what they might receive from a corporate seed company.”

The Trasks’ ranch has 4,000 acres of alfalfa, of which 200 are irrigated. They take the first cutting for hay and in some fields harvest seed from the second cutting of plants when they are at least two years old. Alfalfa plants normally don’t set seed until their second year. Seed is harvested in September and October from only 10 percent of the fields. Yields of alfalfa seed on irrigated land run 200 pounds to the acre, while yields on dryland fields average 100 pounds.

“We don’t intensively manage our fields for alfalfa-seed production,” said Trask. “Our goal is to simply manage fields so that they’re healthy enough to produce hay and seed in a sustainable, long-term plan.”

1,200 Pounds Per Acre Possible

They harvest from 50 to 100 acres of wheatgrass each year, yielding up to 100 pounds to the acre of seed and earning from $2 to $5 a pound. The wheatgrass ripens in late July and early August, and the Trasks harvest it as a standing crop.

Green needle grass is ready to harvest in midsummer also. Because of its fragility, it is harvested with a special sweeper attachment on the tractor loader. Yields sometimes amount to 100 pounds to the acre, and because it’s such a fragile crop, the seed price is high, running from $3 to $9 a pound.

Grazing Regrowth

Like alfalfa fields, grass fields have regrowth and forage left after harvesting. When cows are turned into these fields in fall, they graze regrowth as well as swaths harvested for seed. The best crop of seed comes from those areas in fields where cattle have grouped together to feed, said Trask.

“Some years, with cattle grazing both alfalfa and grass fields, we don’t feed cows much hay,” he added. “We simply supplement them with protein blocks.”

Much of the baled hay is fed to calves after weaning. The Trasks background these on the ranch until marketing them in late winter or early spring.

In years when yields of top-quality alfalfa are good, they sell their best hay to local dairy farmers. This feed will have a relative feed value of as high as 150.

No doubt, their enthusiasm and hard work, along with the family’s profitable tradition of selling alfalfa and grass seed, will help the ranch to thrive for years to come.