How a first-time rancher is regenerating degraded cropland to healthy, resilient rangeland. Rangeland health, soil health, and the economic health of ranchers are one and the same, not mutually exclusive. That’s what James Halverson, Executive Director of the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association, has learned. Halverson also happens to be a passionate rancher, grazing cattle in the northern foothills of the Black Hills. In a recent podcast interview, Halverson talked about his journey from cropland to rangeland—and why he enjoys being a rangeland evangelist. “I feel that rangeland is like a red-headed stepchild that isn’t getting near the attention compared to cropland when it comes to the regenerative agriculture movement,” Halverson said. “We can apply the same soil health principles to rangeland—to increase stocking rates and production while increasing the ecological function and economics, too.” “We try to graze different pastures as short of time as we can, depending on where we can haul water. I’m a big believer in grazing pastures hard, but then giving pastures a good rest, giving them a season to recover.” “Moving into the middle of an older couple’s ranch, in the northern foothills of the Black Hills, we were lucky as first-time ranchers that they put no pressure on us to do things the way they did,” Halverson said. “Especially as we adopted soil health practices to regenerate degraded cropland. You can learn so much by observing the ground, watching how and what species the cows eat—really learning from the landscape and going far beyond just checking the cows,” Halverson said. And that translates to a better product for consumers, he believes. “Raising really good tasting beef starts with healthy soil, diversity on the rangeland and figuring out how to get cattle to eat it,” Halverson said. “I try to emulate and learn from people like Dr. Fred Provenza , Gabe Brown , Ray Archuleta and others who are on the ground and want to help producers.” Halverson subscribes to the slogan “Remember the R’s– Rotate, Rest and Recover” that several South Dakota organizations are promoting to develop resilience on grasslands. He said he’s seen first-hand the value of rest, which has contributed to the growth of his pastures. Here’s more of what Halverson has to say: “We’re fortunate to have a local seed company with outstanding guys that developed a 12 to 15 species mix of cool and warm season grasses, brassicas, alfalfa, sainfoin, tannins and others to meet our goals. Diversity in rangeland helps the soil, and cattle figure out how to flourish as well.” “Our experiment with bale grazing, putting out round bales weekly, is working well, keeping the cows from eating the pine trees that can cause some abortion problems. And we’re seeing some pretty cool results by not pouring cattle.” “We’ve pushed our calving season back, from late April into June, which has worked really well. Those calves rarely see a bad day, we’ve seen basically zero problems, and selling calves a bit later in the year has worked well, too.” The South Dakota State University influence: How South Dakota State University (SDSU) led to agricultural teaching and becoming a first-generation rancher. How his Colorado State University (CSU) graduate degree in Rangeland and Ecosystems Management entrenched his passion for helping other cattle producers become better soil and grass producers. His CSU graduate advisor, Dr. Larry Rittenhouse, taught him the importance of forward thinking and being open-minded. It really opened his eyes to teaching and doing things that can be tough for older generations to do—to adapt and continue to evolve our rangeland management.

On this week’s “Resilience Rodeo”, rancher Larry Wagner tells us about how utilizing both grasses and cover crops extends his grazing seasons and helps keep moisture in his soils. About 20 miles South of Chamberlain, SD, Larry Wagner has 1500 acres of mainly warm season grasses that have mostly been converted from farmland that’s typically seen in the area. When asked why he chooses to keep the land in grass vs. cropland, Wagner answers “I don't like messing with the chemicals, and there's so many more benefits with range for the wildlife, for people in general. You don't have the runoff with range land that you do on farm ground. To me it’s a better quality of life.” Larry’s management style and improved diversity have resulted in the Audubon Society counting 32 different bird species in his pastures, “the highest count that they’ve seen in this part of the world”. 1) What is one thing you done that has been most important to the success of your operation? Probably my most important thing to my operation is my grass and going to a lot of different seminars and different things. And being a member of the South Dakota Grassland Coalition has taught me a lot about grass and the benefits of it. 2) Can you recall a moment in time or when a light bulb came on for you, that kind of made you change the way you're grazing? The reason I've changed my grazing was, just like I stated before, going to tours and stuff. The results of doing that is you learn, and the actual scene is better than somebody telling you that “yeah, this works”. That's really made a big change for me. I guess probably the biggest thing is just seeing how high you can increase your production without any expense, so you have more profit. 3) What surprised you the most when you changed the way you were grazing? The thing that surprised me is how you can increase your production even in a dry year. What a difference it'll make. It's a lot to do with the soil because, as your soil gets better you have more organic matter, you retain more moisture. That's why it gets you dryer years better. 4) What would you say the biggest misconception is with people who are not managing their grass properly? We're all farming, and I don't know if this is the place to get in my soap box about the farming thing, but the problem with that is, so they get a bill for seed and fertilizer and fuel and insecticides and crop consulting. They get all these bills. So, they really concentrate on their row crop, and they don't on their grass. I'd like to bill them people for mismanaging their grass. If they got a bill that you're doing wrong out here for so much an acre, they'd probably change their ways. But the misconception is, “Well, it's just grass, it'll always grow”. Well, it always grows. It always gets green, but how much does it grow? And they said, “Well, there's no production out there and I'm going to sell my cows because there's no grass out there. I don't have enough grass.” Well, yeah, you don't have enough grass because you didn't take care of it. 5) If you could give any of those people some advice on where to start, to maybe change their mindset toward a better grazing system, what would that be? Probably one of the first things I'd do is send them to the South Dakota Grasslands Grazing School and learn about grass. And if they would go on some of these tours and see that stuff, see how it can be improved and really how easy and how cheap it is. There really is very little cost to doing the improving. 6) Looking at your current system, is there anything you'd like to do that you haven't done yet to improve your soil or your grazing system? Probably not a lot on the soil. The grazing system, I've planted it all to grass. I'd never do that again, because I think you need a cover crop in your rotation to extend your grazing later on to either fall or even winter grazing. 7) When you walk across your grasslands, what do you look for as an indicator of healthy grasslands and healthy soil? Well, you look at the soil, look at the armor on the soil. See if you got new species of grass coming. To me, one thing is really interesting in grass species, of their ability to predict weather. Some years you'll have a species that you got a lot of. Wetter or drier year, you probably don't see that as much, but then that year there's some other species of grasses growing good. It just always amazes me what a weather predictor they are. They know when they should be growing and when they shouldn't be growing. Also, a lot of birds. 8) Can you talk about any changes you've made that maybe at first you didn't think would work? Probably some of my biggest mistakes was my fencing. Went with like a four-wire fence, when you could just get by with electric fence. That's probably one of my biggest things. Because the rotational grazing is not a- you don't just start out in the spring and say, well, I'm going to do this, this, and this. The cows are going to be here and there this day, and this day, and this day. It's all based on weather, and you never know your rainfall, so you might want to change your pasture sizes. And if you have permanent fence, you don't change it. 9) What are the signs that your land is resilient? And what does resiliency mean to you? I guess what resilient means to me is probably like this year, when we're in a dry cycle, that still I have a lot of good growing grass. That the soil is healthy and has used all the moisture that we have received. 10) We have a number of words that begin with R, but three that we've settled on, Rotate, Rest, Recovery, that are really key to healthy and resilient range land. Which one would be your favorite and why? Probably recover is my most important because the less time they're on there all your grasses regrow with photosynthesis. Well, the more grass you leave, and the more time you have, the more recovery you'll have. Use that for the next year or later that year, you get your recovery back way faster. That's probably the important thing. ______________________________________________ _______________________ 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: Facebook - Growing Resilience Twitter - @GrowResilience_ Instagram - growingresilience.sd 4. Our homepage: www.growingresiliencesd.com

By James Hoorman - Posted on December 8, 2022 | Posted in No-Till Farming 101 Source: Ohio Country Journal No-Till Farmer recently put together a report: How No-Till Improves Land Values . This report put an economic value on conservation farming practices that improve the environment but also preserve our soil. While farmers own the land and have the right to farm it how they choose, long-term society has an interest in preserving the land for future generations . Here are some results of research on the benefits of no-till to society. An organization called Rural Investment for Protecting our Environment (RIPE) came up with $112 per acre as the value associated with no-till farming. This included $7 for increased carbon sequestration, $16 for improved air quality and human health, $25 for better water quality and $44 for improved soil nutrient management — all on a per acre basis. No-Till Farmer has been documenting farmer benefits for 25 years with farmers indicating they saved $25-$90 per acre in reduced production costs. A conservative figure is $30 per acre on average for reduced fuel, equipment, labor and nutrient (fertilizer) costs and higher water use efficiency, especially for irrigated farmland. Altogether, no-till farmers gain at least $142 per acre in economic benefits. This value represents $16 billion dollars of value to the 110 million acres in the U.S. that are using no-till farming practices. RIPE recently received an $80 million dollar grant from the USDA farm programs to develop Climate Smart Programs. They are doing a pilot project in four states: Arkansas, Minnesota, North Dakota and Virginia. RIPE pays famers up to $100 per acre to adapt conservation practices like no-till, cover crops and strip-till based on the stewardship value to society. They will compare these conservation practices to farmers who don't use conservation practices. RIPE will document changes in carbon sequestration, reduction in greenhouse gasses, increases in soil health, improved water quality and other environmental benefits (reduced flooding, reduced water usage, wildlife benefits, etc.). RIPE says that their recommended conservation practices would guarantee a fair return to farmers for their voluntary practices that deliver public benefits for clean water, land preservation, healthy soil, climate mitigation and other environmental services. This pilot program may be an indication of how USDA farm programs may be handled in the future, based on public service or benefits to society. North Carolina University also did an economic study comparing the value of no-till on land values. They used government satellite data, which is generated every 5 years to determine how the land is farmed and compared that to actual current land sales. Their results showed that for every 1% no-till in an Iowa county, land values increased $15 per acre. In other states, which covered a much larger area with more diversity of land productivity, the value was about $8 per acre. The researcher’s theory is that the more productive the land, the higher the benefits to no-tilling. Also, Iowa has much better information while the other areas had less information, and it covered a much greater diversity of soil types and soil productivity, so the results were about half as great. The value of cover crops was also studied but the difference was not significant, probably because cover crops are only used on about 3.9% of USA cropland. Is it possible that if an Iowa county or a county outside Iowa increased no-till to 10% to 50%, that could increase land values in Iowa by $150/A to $750/A or about $80 to $400 outside of Iowa? The answer is probably a big YES! Consider what happens when land is put into the government Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) for 10-20 years. That land is usually the least productive, highly erodible land, and the least profitable to farm. After 10-20 years of CRP rest in long-term grass, soil health improves, and the soil begins to heal. Many farmers seek out this CRP land because it becomes highly productive and highly profitable once the soil has been restored. As an example, for the same inputs, a soybean farmer may go from 30-bushel soybeans to 70-80 bushels soybeans (40 bu * $13/bu, 50 bu * $13/bu) or $520-$650 in increased value. For a corn farmer, from 120 bushels corn on highly eroded sloping soil to 180-200 bushels corn, a gain of 60-80 bushels ($6/bushel) or $480-$640 per acre. Current Ohio 2022 government conservation practices payments for a new farmer adapting no-till ($16.22/A), conservation crop rotation ($10.39/A), basic nutrient management plan ($6.98/A), precision ag pest management ($46.43/A), and cover crops ($51.05) total $131.07/A (No-Till Farmer, 2022). Conservation practices do pay , but it’s a long-term investment similar to investing in tile. It takes some time and patience to recover your investment. ____________________________________________________________________ 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: Facebook - Growing Resilience Twitter - @GrowResilience_ Instagram - growingresilience.sd 4. Our homepage: www.growingresiliencesd.com

Labor and equipment needs, economics, calving, grazing practices, grassland diversity, soil health, livestock, lifestyle––virtually everything can change for the better when you evolve to year round grazing. Year Round Grazing Videos South Dakota ranchers Pat Guptill and Bart Carmichael, pioneers of year round grazing, share their journeys into the practice along with the top obstacles and insights gleaned along the way. These valuable resources were created in partnership with the USDA-NRCS. Play Video Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tumblr Copy Link Link Copied All VIDEOS Year Round Grazing Blog Posts Year-Round Grazing in South Dakota: Lessons from Pat Guptill & Bart Carmichael Can you really graze cattle year-round? South Dakota ranchers Pat Guptill and Bart Carmichael say yes — not through miracle, but through mindset. By calving on grass, managing for plant diversity, and timing their moves with nature, they’ve cut feed costs, restored their soils, and rediscovered joy in ranching. Watch the Year-Round Grazing video . Buz Kloot, Ph.D. The Range According to Bart At Wedge Tent Ranch near Faith, SD, Bart Carmichael shows how adaptive grazing, humor, and humility can turn harsh prairie country into a thriving, resilient landscape. kloot1 Fire, Grazing, and the Long Patience of Grassland Restoration 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 Buz Kloot, Ph.D. All BLOG POSTS Year Round Grazing Resources YEAR ROUND GRAZING FACT SHEET Click here to download! ALL RESOURCES Year Round Grazing Shorts ALL SHORTS

Learn about different soil health practices from ranchers and farmers to maximize resilience and profits. Explore the journey of reclaiming saline soils through expert insights, practical strategies, and farmer-led solutions—empowering resilience and renewal in the heart of the James River Valley. Soil Salinity View Topic Virtually everything can change for the better when you evolve to year round grazing. Year Round Grazing View Topic Plan for it. Soften the impact. Make your ranch resilient. Drought Management View Topic Our partners at the South Dakota Grassland Coalition just launched their "Pray for Rain. Plan for Drought." project. Click below to find out more; Struggling With Drought? Easier Winter? Graze Bales! Bale Grazing View Topic Struggling With Drought? Best Advice. Burn Before They Get Big. Prescribed Burn View Topic Struggling With Drought? Less Labor, Feed, Vet Bills. Calving On Grass View Topic

Discover expert insights, farmer-led strategies, and practical solutions to manage soil salinity. Transform depleted soils into thriving fields with Growing Resilience. Soil Salinity Resources Soil salinity has quietly reshaped agricultural landscapes for decades, posing a growing challenge for farmers and ranchers. Anthony Bly, a seasoned soil scientist and agronomist, unpacks the complex factors behind this issue—how shifts in rainfall patterns, evolving land management practices, and economic pressures have contributed to rising salt levels. Drawing from his career working alongside producers, Anthony shares how past approaches, such as diverse crop rotations and integrated livestock systems, once kept salinity in check. He recalls lessons from the early ’90s at SDSU, when grasslands and perennial systems played a crucial role in managing soil health. But as more land was converted to cropland, water tables rose, bringing salt to the surface. This resource hub is about solutions—practical, research-backed strategies to help farmers and ranchers reclaim their land. From adjusting crop rotations to reintroducing perennials, the path forward lies in understanding the land’s natural processes and working with them. Explore the insights shared here and discover real-world approaches to mitigating soil salinity. With the right knowledge and stewardship, depleted soils can be restored, ensuring productive fields for future generations. Together with USDA-NRCS , we're tackling soil salinity and building healthier soils. Play Video Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tumblr Copy Link Link Copied Soil salinity has been creeping into agricultural landscapes for decades, and Anthony Bly explains why. Drawing from his long career in soil science, agronomy and firsthand work with farmers, he explains how changes in rainfall, land management, and economic pressures have contributed to rising salt levels. Play Video Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tumblr Copy Link Link Copied Discover how the Hamilton brothers tackled salinity on their farm through innovative vegetation strategies and farming practice changes, transforming once unproductive land into thriving acres. Play Video Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tumblr Copy Link Link Copied Discover the dramatic transformation of salinity-affected soil at the Cain Creek Project. Kent Vlieger shares detailed salinity and sodicity data from 2015 to 2023, revealing how strategic revegetation restored productivity and soil health. Play Video Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tumblr Copy Link Link Copied Join Kent Vlieger as he explores the Cain Creek Project’s success in radically reducing soil salinity. With real data and years of progress, see how innovative strategies are restoring productivity to the land. . All VIDEOS Soil Salinity Podcasts All PODCASTS Soil Salinity Blog Posts You Can’t Fix Salinity with a Box Why Soil Salinity Is Likely to Worsen This Year — and What You Can Do About It Learning About Salinity: A Journey from Confusion to Clarity Building Resilience in Family Farms: South Dakota's Innovative Salinity Solutions All BLOG POSTS Soil Salinity Resources BEADLE COUNTY CONSERVATION DISTRICT DEMO PLOT RESULTS Click here to download! HOW TO MORE PROFITABLY MANAGE SALINE SOIL SPOTS Click here to download! A BETTER WAY TO MANAGE SALINE SOILS FACT SHEET Click here to view! NRSC SALINITY AND SODIC SOIL MANAGEMENT Click here to download! SOIL SALINITY MANAGEMENT Click here to view! ALL RESOURCES Soil Salinity Shorts ALL SHORTS