Mark Birdsall of Berthold is the new chair of North Dakota’s State Board of Agricultural Research and Education, and Sarah Lovas of Hillsboro is the board’s new vice chair.

They were elected at the board’s recent meeting in Fargo.

SBARE also has one new member and one who is returning for another term. Jim Bahm of New Salem has joined the board, and Dean Wehri of Mott will serve a second term.

SBARE works with the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station and North Dakota State University Extension to identify needs, establish funding priorities and set policies.

Birdsall was appointed to the board in 2014 and is in his second term. Lovas is in her first term on the board.

Bahm is the North Dakota Ag Coalition representative on the board. He replaces Keith Peltier of West Fargo. Wehri represents a 14-county area in south-central and southwestern North Dakota. Bahm and Wehri started their four-year terms July 1.

Bahm and his wife farm south of New Salem, where they produce hard red spring wheat, corn, soybeans, flax, canola and sunflowers on a minimum till/no-till operation. They also have a commercial cow-calf herd of Angus-Simmental cattle.

He has been a certified crop adviser consultant who worked with many growers on crops such as small grains, oil seeds, potatoes (irrigation), sugarbeets and alfalfa. He is serving his second term on the North Dakota Wheat Commission, representing wheat growers in the southwestern portion of the state.

He also is a member of the North Dakota Stockmen’s Association and North Dakota Grain Growers Association. In addition, he served on the Morton County Crop Improvement Association board and was a member of the North Dakota Independent Crop Consultation Association.

Wehri is involved with the family farm near Hebron, N.D., raising Gelbvieh cattle, and has been an agricultural lender with Farm Credit Services for a number of years.

The board also has two continuing members. Sen. Jerry Klein, Fessenden, and Rep. Tracy Boe, Mylo, have been reappointed to the board.

NDSU Agriculture Communication - July 1, 2019