Cover Crop Mix In early September 2013, just before the Atlas storm swept across the Dakotas, I met Dr. Mark Liebig at the USDA-ARS laboratory in Mandan, North Dakota. He handed me a single laminated sheet — the now-famous Cover Crop Chart — a visual guide to plant diversity that still feels timeless, like a periodic table for living systems. Each square on that chart represented not just a species but a function in the soil ecosystem. I’d first encountered the idea of crop

Pete Bauman In the Field In July's Our Amazing Grasslands video , courtesy of SD Grassland Coalition, we marveled at the hidden value in so-called weeds — goldenrod testing out as rich as alfalfa, prairie clovers, and milkweeds that feed both cattle and monarchs. That story, framed by Joe Dickie's steady lens, left us thinking of diversity not as decoration but as sustenance. This August's Our Amazing Grasslands video features SDSU's Pete Bauman walking us onto different

Some of Van’s Soils – Insets are Saprophytic Fungi that consume residue and mineralize nutrients (left), mycorrhizal fungi that live in...