Building Living Soil on Cropland — Van Mansheim’s Journey
- Buz Kloot, Ph.D.
- Aug 21
- 3 min read
I first visited Van Mansheim on his farm in October 2020, and when I recently sat down again for a podcast interview with him, the conversation quickly grew beyond a podcast. Van is the whole package: no-till, long rotations, cover crops, bale grazing, livestock integration, and even a pheasant hunting enterprise. In the past week I’ve spent hours answering questions on our social media about no-till, inputs, weeds, and soil biology — and Van spoke to every one of them from lived experience. He doesn’t deal in abstractions. He speaks as a fourth-generation farmer, a businessman, and as a board member of the South Dakota Soil Health Coalition who knows how to make soil health principles work in real fields.
About 5 miles north of Colome in Tripp County, Van is showing that no-till can be more than a planting method — it can be a gateway to resilience. Since going all-in on no-till in 2010, he has built a system of long rotations, cover crops, bale grazing, and livestock integration. The result? Healthier soils, stronger crops, and lower costs.
Van doesn’t just speak from the seat of his tractor. On the Soil Health Coalition board, he helps other producers think through the same challenges he’s faced. His credibility comes not from theory but from the struggles he’s wrestled with and the rewards he’s seen.
Like many, he found no-till alone wasn’t enough. “It was when we started bringing in covers in 2014 that things really changed,” he recalls, crediting neighbor Brian Jorgensen, also of Tripp County, for encouragement. Cover crops filled the root gap, gave him living plants between cash crops, and made spring planting easier. Mud no longer balled up on the planter; residue no longer sat heavy. Microbes and livestock cycled it back into the soil.
The economics followed. By building biology with diverse rotations and livestock, Van steadily cut fertilizer needs. He’s also gone more than a decade without spraying a fungicide — solid evidence that resilient soils and diverse rotations can keep crops healthy without an endless stream of inputs. “If the soil biology’s doing its job, you don’t need to reach for a jug every time,” he says.
Rotation is another cornerstone: four years of high-carbon crops, then one year of low-carbon. Sometimes he seeds a “succotash” mix — multiple species together — that doubles as forage for cattle and food for the microbes. Every decision starts with biology, knowing that economics follow. “Farmers are practical,” Van says. “We don’t change unless we see it working.”
That pragmatism is why Van has become such a strong advocate for the full suite of soil health principles. He reminds others — especially those debating online — that no-till by itself isn’t a silver bullet. But paired with covers, rotations, and livestock, it lowers input costs, reduces risk, and leaves soils stronger year after year.
And the results don’t just show up in spreadsheets. Hunters who come to Van’s pheasant operation remark on the look and feel of his ground. Neighbors notice the difference in infiltration after a rain. For Van, those signs are as convincing as any research trial: living proof that resilient soils are profitable soils.
This post is part of a companion piece. There was too much to share in a single post, so we decided to separate them even though they form a whole. Be sure to read the other post here to get the full story.
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