Over the past few weeks, the tillage and no-till debate has sparked surprising and passionate discussion among our readers. We've...

As a response to several requests for more peer-reviewed material on the economics of no-till (NT) vs. conventional tillage (CT), I went digging into the usual suspects — input costs, yield comparisons, and long-term trials. That’s when I stumbled on research from South Dakota State University’s Beresford Research Farm that made me realize: I had a bias . In an earlier blog , we cited a meta-analysis showing no-till yields averaging 5.7% lower overall compared to conventiona

By the Growing Resilience Team I’ve visited Vermillion, South Dakota, several times, usually under slate-gray skies and spring winds that sweep across the flats without asking permission. But in May of 2025, I made my first trip 26 miles west to Yankton—a place I had long overlooked, nestled near the Jim River and Missouri confluence. As Joe Dickie and I drove from Vermillion toward Yankton—and between Joe’s exclamations of “rooster!” or “hey, two hens!”—I noticed how quickly

Anthony Bly In 2023, NRCS’s Marcia Deneke and Kent Vlieger generously took time to guide me through the salinity challenges of South Dakota. We visited the Beadle County Dale Demonstration Farm, Cain Creek, producers like Scott and Jeff Hamilton — and finally sat down with Anthony Bly in Sioux Falls. At first, I couldn’t make sense of one question: Why would salinity increase when rainfall does too? More rain should be good, right? It took conversations with Kent, Ducks Unlim

By Buz Kloot An old friend of mine grew up in Utah’s Cache Valley, where his dad, a worn-out dairyman, would shake his head after a long day and mutter, “I sure hope there ain’t no cows in heaven.” But I’m not so sure anymore—especially after visiting Cody Merrigan, a young farmer just a stone’s throw from the University of South Dakota’s Vermillion campus. Cody runs a mixed operation of row crops, cover crops, and stocker cattle in Clay County, where most folks stick to corn

Natalie Sturm By the Growing Resilience Team For decades, no-till has been hailed as a cornerstone of regenerative agriculture—an essential practice to protect soil while still producing food, feed, fuel, and fiber. However, a groundbreaking thesis by soil scientist Natalie Sturm, conducted at the Dakota Lakes Research Farm in central South Dakota, shows that no-till is only part of the equation. It’s not just about reducing disturbance. It’s about what you grow—and how you g

Please note: If any of the references below are unavailable, please let us know, and we can access them through our university library. In recent weeks, we've delved deep into the peer-reviewed literature to understand better the complex relationship between no-till agriculture and chemical inputs like herbicides, pesticides, and synthetic fertilizers. This topic has repeatedly come up in online discussions, and we were genuinely surprised to see how, for many, no-till

By Buz Kloot In late April, Joe Dickie and I traveled up to South Dakota, chasing a spring that felt just out of reach. Our first stop was with Dawn Butzer, and if there’s a better way to start a trip, I don’t know it. Dawn grew up with livestock in her blood—cattle were simply part of life. But after attending a South Dakota Grasslands Grazing School, something shifted. What had always been passion became purpose. She and her husband made the bold decision to buy cropland th

By the Growing Resilience Team When we posted a video of Dr. Dwayne Beck explaining how tillage destroys soil structure and reduces infiltration, we expected a little pushback—but not hundreds of comments. What followed was one of our most active conversations yet, with producers from across the region offering both challenges and praise. It confirmed something we already suspected: There’s no one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to tillage and yield. So, we did what we alw

By: the Growing Resilience Team A couple of weeks ago, we shared two posts that lit up our social media channels like never before. The topic? You guessed it: tillage. The first post was a short but controversial video of Dakota Lake Research Farm’s Dr. Dwayne Beck saying: “Grandpa had more organic matter than you do. All tillage tools destroy soil structure. All tillage tools decrease water infiltration… All tillage tools reduce organic matter…” The second was a graphic

Photo Credit: By Joe Dickie In western South Dakota, where the prairie stretches wide and the wind speaks in long, slow sentences,...

By: the Growing Resilience Team I’ve long been a champion of the five principles of soil health — things like keeping the soil covered, minimizing disturbance, maintaining living roots, promoting diversity, and integrating livestock. These ideas have shaped my work and my conversations with farmers across the country. But it wasn’t until I interviewed Clinton Rasmusson out in White River, South Dakota, that the sixth principle — context — really hit home for me. Context means

By: Buz Kloot The prairie does not demand attention. It whispers, it hums, it endures. But to those who know it well, who grew up...

By: Buz Kloot In the heart of South Dakota, where the wide-open spaces of the Great Plains meet the horizon, Johnathon Neuharth is not...

My buddy, Mike Hall, as cowboy as a southern gentleman can be (and I mean gentle man), sent me a wonderful Christmas card by Jack Sorenson, an artist whose work I wasn't familiar with. I looked Sorensenn up online (linked here) and found his delightful story—he's still making art today! For my cowboy friends out West River, you're probably thinking, "Kloot, what rock have you been living under these past few years? Haven't you learned anything?" I know; I'm a city boy wh

By: Buz Kloot This summer (2024), as I began editing video footage from June 2023 (yes, I’m a bit behind), I realized I had my work cut out for me. We conducted interviews with several experts: Scott and Jeff Hamilton (of Hamilton Seed Mix fame), SDSU’s Anthony Bly, NRCS’s Kent Vlieger, Ducks Unlimited’s Bruce Toay and Matt Hubers, and the inimitable Frannie Fritz. The subject was salinity. If you’re driving east River (a very South Dakotan term for those outside the state),

By: Buz Kloot I really despise the word "training." We train dogs to do tricks and potty train kids—something I was all too aware of...

By: Buz Kloot I was out in Danielsville Georgia preparing for a grazing field day when my friend, Michael Hall, former NRCS grazing...

By: Buz Kloot Recently, I visited with my sister-in-law in Cape Town, South Africa and she told me that one of her old friends asked if...

Photo Credit: Joe Dickie By: Buz Kloot Is the art and science of shepherding a lost practice, or can we still learn from it today? In our SoilHealthLabs podcast series, Joe Dickie and I sat down with Dr. Fred Provenza to explore this question in the episode “Tap into the Hidden Wisdom of Livestock to Restore Your Land”. We dive into the skills of shepherds who not only guide their animals but also learn from them, using their knowledge to create a healthy balance between anim