How the Michalski Ranch Turned Marginal Cropland into a Diverse, Profitable Pasture
- Buz Kloot, Ph.D.
- Aug 19
- 4 min read
On the South Dakota Coteau, the Michalski family transformed marginal cropland into a thriving, diverse pasture. Discover their grazing strategies, land ethic, and how diversity drives both resilience and profit.
It was July 2021 when Joe Dickie and I rolled up to the Michalski spread on the Coteau. Waiting to greet us were Darin, his wife Jessica, and their son Cutler. Darin cut a dashing figure — blue sleeveless button-up, well-worn jeans, cowboy boots planted in the ground, and a baseball cap pulled low. There was something in his stance — easy, alert, weathered by work — that reminded me, apart from the lack of a slouch hat, a little of an Australian drover. I do not doubt that the image he cut with his pasture in the background was the reason his videos attracted more than a few eyeballs on our social media page.
I’ll own it now: this story should have been told long ago. Life and projects stacked up, and other deadlines jumped the queue. But sometimes, you need a few years to understand what you saw — to gather the science, the context, and the perspective that make a story worth telling. And now, with a summer full of conversations about forbs, diversity, and resilience, I see the Michalski place for what it is: a master class in the land ethic.
A place made for pasture
The Coteau isn’t a forgiving country for row crops. It’s rolling glacial ground — thin soils draped over old ice-scoured hills — where rain comes when it will, and water has its own mind. For years, parts of Darin’s operation were cropped, but the returns were thin, the soil tired.
So he began converting marginal cropland back into pasture. Not out of nostalgia, but because grass, forbs, and legumes were what the land wanted to be. “We’re better able to utilize our resources — moving from cool seasons into warm seasons, letting them regrow, and getting more grazing time on each paddock,” he says.
Diversity didn’t just happen
When we stepped into Darin’s pastures, the first thing he did wasn’t talk about pounds of beef or bushels of grain. He pointed out plants. Leadplant, purple prairie clover, Canada milkvetch — and plenty of others that most folks might call weeds. He’s learned that timing is the lever that changes everything.
“We’ve found that hitting those cool-season invaders hard in the spring really makes a difference. You knock them back, and suddenly those native warm-season grasses you hadn’t seen in years start coming back.”
This wasn’t just good botany — it was good grazing. Those forbs and warm-season natives aren’t filler; they’re protein-rich, drought-hardy, and they stretch the grazing season deep into the shoulder months.
More grass, longer seasons
By rotating carefully and letting plants recover, Darin has not only rebuilt plant diversity — he’s extended the grazing window.
“The latest we’ve had our cows out was February 1st. We didn’t run out of grass — we ran out of places to graze. That’s how much we’re able to extend the season now.”
That’s not just a win for the cattle — it’s a win for the balance sheet. Less hay bought in, fewer tractor hours, more resilience in dry years. On the Coteau, that kind of insurance is worth as much as rain in July.
Choosing diversity over the quick fix
Darin learned the hard way what happens when you try to “clean up” a pasture with chemicals.
“I sprayed all my pastures once years ago, then it turned dry, and it set my grass back so bad. There were no legumes or forbs. I went away from that, and now I’d rather manage weeds with grazing timing than wipe out the diversity.”
It’s a lesson in patience — one that runs counter to the idea that faster is always better. In this country, it’s often the slower road that takes you where you want to go.
The land ethic in practice
When Aldo Leopold wrote about the “land ethic,” he described a shift from seeing land as a commodity to seeing it as a community — something you belong to, not something you own. On the Michalski spread, that ethic isn’t a plaque on the wall; it’s in the daily decisions, the rotation plans, and the way Darin talks with landlords about grass health.
“We’re not perfect by any means, but we’re trying to improve the land — and that should be worth a lot.”
It’s also in the way he sees cattle: not just as a product, but as the engine that turns sunlight, soil, and a mess of plants into food.
“When you can take plants that people can’t eat and turn them into a nutrient-dense protein package, you’re converting something undervalued into something essential.”
Right on time
Yes, this story is late. But maybe it took two extra years and a July spent knee-deep in forbs to see just how much it matters. In a season when we’ve been talking about the value of diversity, the Michalskis are proof that it’s not theory — it’s what makes the land, the livestock, and the livelihood more resilient.
Visit these “Growing Resilience Through Our Soils” information pages:
1. Podcast page for drought planning fact sheets, Q&As, news, podcasts, and more.
2. Video page to watch videos of other ranchers’ journeys toward improved rangeland/pasture.
3. Follow Growing Resilience on social media:
4. Our homepage: www.growingresiliencesd.com
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