A Field of Miracles: My Visit with Dawn Butzer

Buz Kloot, Ph.D.
Jun 3
2 min read

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 they had once leased and restore it to native prairie.

It wasn't an easy path. Dawn shared how she had wrestled through the bidding process, how deeply personal the decision had been. "I fasted for three days so that somehow we could buy this land," she said. "I didn’t want it just to stay cropland. I wanted it to become something more." When they finally got it, it felt like more than a purchase. It felt like an answer.

On Good Friday this year, they planted their first field back to prairie.

As we walked the field with her, we dropped to our knees, scratching through the grain drill furrows for signs of life. And there it was—the thin white radicles of oats pushing through the black soil, and finer still, the threadlike beginnings of native grasses taking hold. Dawn smiled through tears and said, "Every seed that grows is a miracle." You could see it in her face—the mixture of awe, gratitude, and hope woven into every word.

The seed mix she planted—designed with help from Pete Bauman and NRCS conservationist Jay Hermann—was carefully built for biodiversity and resilience. More than twenty-five native species were included, among them big bluestem, sideoats grama, switchgrass, and little bluestem, anchored alongside vibrant forbs like purple prairie clover, eastern purple coneflower, and black-eyed Susan. This wasn’t a quick cover crop. This was a prairie-in-the-making, a habitat for grazing, wildlife, and soil restoration.

As we stood there, Dawn said, "You have to trust the process you can’t always see. It’s like faith—you believe in the promise before you see the harvest." Looking out across the rough new field, she added, "When I walk out here now, I don’t see crops—I see a future."

It’s easy to be cynical about agriculture today. Markets go up and down. Margins tighten. But standing there with Dawn, watching those first green shoots push against the prairie winds, I realized that hope still grows wild and strong in South Dakota.

Dawn Butzer isn't just planting seeds. She's planting a story—and it's just beginning.

And I can't wait to go back.

Download Dawn Butzer’s full NRCS-approved seeding plan (PDF)