Grazing Grass Podcast | Rotational Grazing, Soil Health & Profitable Livestock Farming 207 | Mason Lautenschlager, North Dakota | Losing the Family Farm at 12 and Building It Back From Nothing
Mason Lautenschlager and his wife Hannah run Arrow L Ranch near Berthold in northwest North Dakota, where they focus on grass-based enterprises including a cow-calf herd, some direct grass-finished beef, and selling multi-bred composite coming 2-year-old bulls developed on forage.
In This Episode, We Explore:
- Building a ranch back after his family sold out of farming and ranching
- Buying cows at the top of the market and navigating the crash afterward
- Shifting the whole operation toward lower labor and lower equipment intensity
- Winter grazing decision-making around snow cover, forage quality, and flexibility
- Bale grazing setup, timing, and what it changed on poorer soil areas
- Water limitations, fencing lanes, and building a system for easier moves
- Stockpiling forage and planning grazing around winter and spring needs
- Increasing plant diversity through grazing management rather than seeding
- Using forage clippings to estimate available dry matter per acre
- Developing bulls on forage and selecting for longevity and fertility over max production
Why This Episode Matters
If winter feed, labor, and equipment costs are squeezing your operation, Mason’s story is a practical look at how constraints can force better systems. This conversation gets into the real tradeoffs of stockpile grazing versus bale grazing, how water and fencing design affect what is possible, and why selection for fertility and longevity can matter more than pushing production.
Resources Mentioned
- Agriculture Alberta video series: Managing Risk in Winter Grazing
- Principled Land Managers grazing school (Bart Carmichael and Pat Guptill)
- North Dakota Grazing Lands Coalition
- DV Auction
- Movie: Moneyball
- Book: Lasater Philosophy of Cattle Raising (Tom Lasater)
Find Out More
- Arrow L Ranch Facebook page | https://www.facebook.com/arrowlranch
- DV Auction video catalog for the Arrow L Ranch bull sale (opens Feb 6, closes Feb 8 with a soft close) | https://www.dvauction.com/video_catalogs/13210
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Original Music by Louis Palfrey