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Are you interested in learning how to improve soil health, water infiltration, livestock performance, and grass diversity on your ranch? If so, don't miss the South Dakota Soil Health Coalition’s upcoming grazing management bus tour! During this tour, you will visit three different ranches to see firsthand how they have implemented grazing management strategies to achieve these goals. Guest speakers Dr. Llewellyn (Lee) Manske, Ph.D and Tobias (Toby) Stroh will share their expertise and principles to follow to increase overall ranch production. Dr. Manske is a Rangeland Scientist at Dickinson, ND Research Extension Center, and Toby Stroh is an expert in the Department of Agriculture and Technical Studies at Dickinson State University. The bus tour will begin at 8:30 a.m. (CST) on June 29th with registration in the parking lot of the Harold Thune Auditorium in Murdo, SD. The bus will depart at 9:00 a.m. and tour two ranches in Mellette County and one ranch in Jones County before returning to Murdo at 5:45 p.m. The tour is limited to a certain number of participants, so pre-registration by June 21st is required. In addition to the bus tour, they are also offering a three-day workshop from November 7-9th titled “Biologically Effective Management of Grasslands.” Dr. Manske and Toby Stroh will return to work with attendees on developing and implementing a biologically effective management strategy specifically designed for their ranch. The workshop will be held in Murdo, and the tuition is $100 for the workshop only, $50 for the bus tour only, or $125 for both. Noon meals are included in the tuition. This is an excellent opportunity to learn from experts and see real-world examples of grazing management strategies in action. Don't miss this chance to improve your ranch's profitability and sustainability. Register now for the bus tour and workshop and take the first step towards achieving your goals! For more information and to register for the bus tour visit: https://www.sdsoilhealthcoalition.org/event/grazing-management-bus-tour/ ____________________________________________________________________ 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

We want to make you aware of the Northern Great Plains Joint Venture (NGPJV) website that discusses its mission and what they do. In short, here are some of the items we found pertinent to our readers: The Northern Great Plains Joint Venture (NGPJV) is a coalition of individuals living, working, and engaging in recreational activities in the Northern Great Plains region. The NGPJV operates in Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, and South Dakota and is concerned about the ongoing loss of grassland resources and the simultaneous decline of grassland bird populations. The mission of the NGPJV is to retain, enhance, restore, and protect grassland, sagebrush-steppe, wetland, and riparian ecosystems, with a focus on sustaining and increasing populations of migratory and resident birds. They recognize the vital role of private landowners and Tribes in achieving their vision of resilient grasslands. In terms of habitat, the Northern Great Plains is home to some of the most intact shrub-steppe and grassland landscapes in North America, providing critical breeding habitat for five imperiled species of grassland birds. Wetlands and riparian areas scattered throughout this region are essential for supporting people, livestock, and wildlife, but these areas face threats such as drainage, conversion to agricultural use, grazing pressure, and invasion by non-native plant species. The NGPJV partners value and respect the traditions and voices of all individuals living and working in the Northern Great Plains, including the 27 Indigenous tribes or bands with ancestral connections to the region. The website hosts a Conservation in Action Page that points the user to a number of tools that include the NGPJV Web Tool, N-GRIP (The Northern Grassland Restoration Incentive Program), and a number of Planning and Monitoring Tools (amongst others), while their Resources Page provides documents and a plethora of funding sites. We invite you to visit this site to find out more! ____________________________________________________________________ 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

What is a Land Trust? Our partner, the South Dakota Grasslands Coalition, recently sent out a newsletter to raise awareness of the South Dakota Agricultural Land Trust (SDALT). SD Grasslands tell us “The organization was founded because there was a lot of interest in South Dakota for conservation easements, but no organization was solely controlled by farmers and ranchers. The creation of SDALT resulted from a goal to form a non-profit organization that would hold conservation easements to preserve working lands for future generations to enjoy.” For more on the SDALT, please visit their website. So what are agricultural land trusts and what is their function? If you’d like to educate yourself a little more, we took a little dive into the subject and hope you find this useful! An agricultural land trust is a nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving and protecting farmland for agricultural use. These trusts work to secure agricultural lands from development, ensuring their long-term availability of the land for farming and ranching purposes. Here are some key functions and services that agricultural land trusts provide to producers: Land Preservation: The primary goal of agricultural land trusts is to preserve and protect agricultural land from being converted to non-agricultural uses such as urbanization or industrialization. By acquiring easements or purchasing farmland, land trusts help safeguard valuable agricultural resources. Easements and Acquisitions: Agricultural land trusts often work with landowners to establish conservation easements. A conservation easement is a legal agreement that restricts the future development of the land ensuring it remains in agricultural production. If an easement is in place, this typically means that the value of the land is reduced because it can’t be resold for development or other purposes and the landowner is compensated by the land trust for this reduction in value. Land trusts may also acquire farmland outright and lease it to farmers or ranchers. Stewardship and Monitoring: Agricultural land trusts can take responsibility for monitoring and enforcing the terms of conservation easements. They conduct regular inspections to ensure that the land remains used for agricultural purposes and to protect against any violations or encroachments. Technical Assistance: Land trusts can provide technical assistance to farmers and landowners, offering guidance on sustainable agricultural practices, soil conservation, water management, and other land stewardship techniques. This support helps farmers optimize their operations and maintain the productivity of the land. Access to Land: They can facilitate access to affordable farmland for new and aspiring farmers. They may offer leasing options, provide assistance in securing financing, or help connect farmers with available land opportunities. This access to land is crucial for supporting the next generation of farmers. Education and Outreach: Land trusts often engage in educational programs and outreach efforts to raise awareness about the importance of farmland conservation. They collaborate with farmers, community organizations, and policymakers to promote sustainable agriculture, advocate for agricultural policies, and foster a greater understanding of the value of agricultural lands. Farm Succession Planning: Agricultural land trusts assist farmers with succession planning, helping to ensure that farmland remains in productive agricultural use as it transitions from one generation to the next. This service helps preserve the farming heritage and allows families to pass down their agricultural legacies. By providing these services, agricultural land trusts play a vital role in protecting and supporting the agricultural industry, promoting sustainable practices, and preserving the availability of fertile land for future generations of farmers. For more on the SDALT, please visit their website here. ____________________________________________________________________ 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

When Dan Mehlhaf heard weather forecasters warn in early May last year that a strong storm was on its way, he and his family took precautions. Both he and his wife went home early from work to their Hutchinson County, South Dakota home on May 12. Around 4:00 p.m. they watched out their window in disbelief as daylight turned to darkness in a matter of seconds. “When I say darkness,” Dan recalls, “this wasn't just kinda dark, this was pitch black where you could not see your hand in front of your face. I had never experienced anything like that. It reminded me a lot of some of the pictures and some of the accounts I had heard about the Dust Bowl days of the 1930’s, and it was quite scary.” The darkness lasted a few minutes. The intense straight-line winds of the derecho storm that followed lasted only 15 minutes, but the damage they caused was immense. Corn seedlings were sandblasted and shorn. Soybean plants were cut down by the wind. Trees and buildings sustained major damage. Some vehicles were thrown into road ditches, car windows were blown out, and car panels dented with interiors filled with gravel and corn stalks. A wife of a friend was blown around so violently while she was shutting the doors on a machine shed that she broke an ankle and sustained torn ligaments. Dan farms with his son in Hutchinson County, about 30 minutes from Yankton, where he works as the District Conservationist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. He recently spoke with Buz Kloot in a Growing Resilience podcast about the derecho, and the significant soil losses that occurred from two storms only a few weeks before. High-damage winds a month earlier The spring of 2022 had already set out distinctly windy and warm. But on April 14, 40-50 mile-an-hour winds blowing through the fields shocked Dan and his neighbors. That day, Dan noticed a relative of his online noting particularly bad wind erosion on a field about 30 miles northeast of Yankton. Dan drove to the field to meet his relative and was again shocked– the wind and flying dirt were so intense in the thick of the storm that he couldn’t even get out of his truck. “Our pickups were side-by-side in the road,” he explains. “We rolled the windows down to talk, but we could only carry on a very short conversation because the dirt was blowing into the vehicle so bad, getting in our eyes. I took videos that day but I couldn't get out of the truck to do it.” A few days later, Dan returned to the field. It had been tilled and then cut for silage, with no cover crop. The loose, dry Egan-Ethan soil, a silty-clay loam, had been totally displaced. Dan noticed so much soil material had been blown into the road ditches that the ditches were level with the road in some places. He dug into this displaced material and found that it was all sand– a loamy sand that behaved like the sand in an hourglass. It would collapse easily in on itself. He pushed a yardstick down and discovered that it was 29 inches deep. “There is a very small portion of sand in a silty clay loam,” Dan says. “It’s not very much. So what this tells you is that the smaller silt and clay particles that make up the predominant portion of this silty clay loam had gone airborne and just disappeared, blown who knows how many miles down the road. The only particle left was sand, which had bounced along the surface and ended up in the road ditch.” Dan took a sample of the soil in to be tested, and found surprisingly high levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and sulfur. Based upon the value of fertilizer, Dan did the calculations– that is $996 worth of nutrients in the road ditch. Another storm hit on April 23rd, 2022, with 50-60 mile-an-hour winds. Dan and his son had been out in the field and they had to seek shelter in a shed, as they were physically being blown around. They could see soil from their neighbors’ land flying through the air. 15-ton soil loss in 15 minutes The derecho on May 12 was modeled by USDA/NRCS National Erosion Specialist Chris Coriel, who found that 15 tons per acre of soil had been lost in those 15 minutes of straight winds. That 15 tons of soil lost from an acre would fill a dump truck––but what was more significant to Coriel was even more soil was lost on yet a third day of strong winds on May 7, just 5 days prior to the derecho. Coriel’s modeling showed that the 12 hours of sustained 20-25 mile-an-hour winds on that day– a more common occurrence in South Dakota, produced more soil erosion than the more exotic derecho. Dan Mehlhaf was not surprised by the results of the modeling. He recalled distinctly hearing soil particles hit the car body and windows during the high winds on April 14 as he drove by unprotected land. Dan notes there was clearly a difference in soil loss from fields that had been clean-tilled compared to those with standing cover residue, or a cover crop. For example– the Egan-Ethan silty clay loam that had blown so badly on April 14 was countered across the road to the south by a field with the same soil type. Both had been cut for silage, but this second field had been planted with a cereal rye cover crop after the silage was cut. The cereal rye was green and growing well, and that field did not blow. Dan explains that a well-planned cover crop is a primary factor in protecting soil from wind erosion, assisted also by no-till practices and good, intact residue. Tillage trends change slowly Though it is a slow process to change anybody’s mentality, Dan notes, he has observed through conservation tillage surveys a very slow trend in the direction of less tillage, and even towards no-till practices in some places. The biggest change he’s seen is a skyrocketing of cover crop usage. “We really are seeing the adoption of less tillage and more use of cover crops in these dry years,” Dan explains. “There’s been just enough moisture to get the cover crops to grow and do what they’re supposed to do, thank goodness for that, because they’re really making a difference. This past winter, you really had to drive around and look to find a field that somebody tilled last fall. It’s not commonplace to till in the fall anymore. “These past two years have really changed some mindsets on how much tillage we think we need to do,” Dan says. “And there’s less tillage being done, at least for the time being, and more cover crops. The rye is green and growing, and up about 2 inches right now (April 12, 2023) and looking beautiful.” That would be gratifying news to former NRCS state conservationist Jeff Zimprich, whose vision was to “move the needle in soil health”– not just for producers but for people across the state. Dan is seeing that needle beginning to move. He’s seen a steady increase in adoption of conservation practices in the last two years. Even in 2019 when it was too wet to plant corn, he saw farmers planting a cover crop. “They saw the value of it in a wet year. Now they are seeing the value of the practice in a dry year,” Dan says. “Ideally this practice can become standard and habitual, and replace some of the conventional farming practices that had left soils thin and fields vulnerable to forces like the derecho.” Additional Notes: What is a derecho? https://www.weather.gov/lmk/derecho SD NRCS’s derecho playlist shows some of the image and video material that Dan collected from April 14 to May 12, 2022 Kurt Lawton’s excellent article “Winds, tillage steal soil productivity in Dakotas” in the Dakota Farmer. Keep an eye out on our Growing Resilience Website for an additional podcast with national Soil Erosion Specialist, Chris Coreil and more material on the derecho on our blog page. Follow the Growing Resilience SD stories wherever you get your social media. ____________________________________________________________________ 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

For this weeks “Resilience Rodeo”, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe member Dugan Bad Warrior shares how he changed his paradigm to focus not only on the animals that make up his operation, but to focus more specifically on the pasture. Dugan Bad Warrior knows the importance of family in the ranching lifestyle. He has and will continue to make changes to his management to improve that life for himself and for his children. “Years ago, before I started this, I was still conventional ranching, calving in late March, early April, going through some tough times and my kids seen it. And I went through a bout of depression and I didn't know it, but my kids got to the point where they told me they didn't want to ranch. That was one driving factor to help me realize there's got to be a better way.” By changing to practices that gave his pastures rest, Dugan was also able to experience that same rest. “The way I look at the land and the things I do for it is, it brings me joy now. It’s fun. My girls actually want to do this with me.” 1) What one thing have you done that has been most important to the success of your operation? What one thing has been most important to the success of the operation, is probably changing my paradigm and understanding that there are other ways to ranch and better ways to ranch for the pasture, and not specifically look at the animal but look at the pasture. 2) Can you recall a moment or time when the light bulb went on for you to change the way you were grazing? The time that the light bulb went on for me to change the way I was grazing, was when I first went to Ranching for Profit and they showed me different managed grazing videos and practices. It showed that I got to do something different because I was hurting the ground and helping it at the same time, but I wasn't doing the best job I could do. 3) What surprised you most when you changed the way you were grazing? What surprised me most when I changed the way I was grazing was how fast the land responded to just making changes and giving it proper rest. I didn't see it in my animals right off. I think the biggest thing was seeing that response the land had to the changes. 4) What would you say is the biggest misconception people have, who are not managing their grazing system for resiliency and soil health? I think most guys who are still doing it the way they've always done it still think they're doing a good job. They just don't understand the plants stages that need to happen. And I think that they need to understand that there is rest that needs to come when a plant is stressed, it needs to have the rest and recovery time in order to get the production back. 5) Is there something you'd still like to do that you haven't yet to improve your soil health or grazing system? I think a lot more cross fencing to get me to manage my ground a lot better is something I would really like to do. I think because of the terrain I have, it's real challenging to do temporary. Temporary is great to do, but I would like a lot more permanent cross fences that I can pull off of and not have to run temporary so far. And water. Water is always going to be one of the big things that I want to continue to improve. But those two things I think are things that I really, really would like to do yet. 6) What advice do you have for someone who is considering changing their grazing system to one that's better for building soil health? I would try to reach out to as many places as I can and get educated on it, because you can hurt the ground if you're not careful by just sticking a lot of animals on there. I think you need to know what practices work in order to make it effective and not just understand that a lot more animals on a pasture is good, but that it can hurt it because of time. Time is one of the biggest things people don't understand with grazing, time is the biggest factor. 7) When you walk across your grasslands, what do you look for as an indicator of healthy grassland and healthy soil? When I walk across my pastures, what I look for to indicate healthy soils is the more diversity of native species. The more species you have, I think the healthier your soil is, the less species you have, it means you probably got something wrong, something is going on that you need to address. But I think the most species I can get out there would show me that I'm doing something right. 8) What change have you made that you had first thought would never work? The change that I made at first that I thought would never work and it took me a long time to do it was changing my calving dates. I always thought because I was chasing pounds for years and years and thought that was the way to be profitable. Once I moved to May calving, I will never go back to anything but that. Calving with nature, that is something I was very afraid to do because I was afraid to see the results in a negative way, but they've been nothing but positive. 9) What are the signs that your land is resilient and what does resiliency mean to you? I guess the signs, as we've seen today, in a pretty major drought, is that my pastures are healthy and got a lot of diversity in it. My ground is pretty resilient, but what does resilience mean to me? I guess resilience to me is being able to withstand major weather events, is the more resilient your ground is to that is, to different weather events, is a good thing. 10) Which of these three words, R words, do you relate to, or do you think is most important and why? Rotate, rest, or recover? I would say rest is probably the most important, because if your ground isn't getting the proper rest, it doesn't have the chance to recover. So having the proper amount of rest is the biggest thing. You can rotate as many times as you want, but if you don't give it the rest, you're never going to see any recovery or any sort of gains in your pastures. 11) You got the five principles of soil health. One of them is animal impact, which obviously that's something as a rancher, you just naturally do, but the Gabe Brown and Ray Archuleta and those guys have added, they say that there's a sixth principle, which is observation and basing your changes on observation. So how much of what you do is based on observation, how in tune with things are you really paying attention to things and adjusting because of this? I think observation is a big thing, because when I make a change, I usually try to photograph it. Either that or if I don't photograph it, I've definitely got a mental picture of it. And I come back again to see what this practice has done. Has it hurt it or negatively impacted, or positively impacted? I think observing what you've done is a big thing to move forward or to change your practice. Observation is a huge thing, which we teach in the South Dakota Grassland Coalition’s grazing school. You got to have your sites where you come back and observe what you've done, because if you don't, then how do you know you're really making a positive or negative impact? ____________________________________________________________________ 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: Buz Kloot I remember last year my friend from South Dakota sent me some images and video of a dust storm that caused havoc across southeastern South Dakota on May 12, 2022. The most unsettling video I saw was the view from the inside of the car on the I-90 between Mitchell and Sioux Falls. It was dark outside… and yet it was 4 pm. This was the first time I heard the word ‘derecho’ in this context, which refers to straight-line winds that exceed 58 mph. I was born on the (very dry) west coast of Africa and was familiar with the Arabic term ‘haboob’ a phenomenon found in the Sahara and the middle east, but a haboob, or derecho in Eastern South Dakota? At Growing Resilience, I wanted to make sure we remember the derecho (or haboob), and May 12, 2023, is the one-year anniversary of that day because the dust-bowl-like conditions remind us of how brittle the system can be if it is disturbed and not covered. We didn’t need to beat the bushes too long to find folks willing to share their expertise and experiences with us. We talked to Chris Coriel, the National Erosion Specialist based at the NRCS’s Central National Technology Support Center in Fort Worth, TX, Daniel Mehlhaf, USDA-NRCS District Conservationist in Yankton, SC, and Frank Kralicek, Jr., a farmer in Yankton and ended up with a lot of material. Our senior staff writer, Kurt Lawton wrote an excellent article and we were excited that Dakota Farmer published this on May 10, 2023. In addition, we were able to have fascinating discussions with Dan Mehlhaf who experienced the storm, and with Chris Coreil who did the erosion modeling for the SD- NRCS and we have these discussions in our SoilHealthLabs podcast (wherever you get your podcasts) or you can locate them on our podcasts page at https://www.growingresiliencesd.com/podcasts Thanks to Dan Mehlhaf’s quick thinking, we also had some amazing images of April 14, a month before the derecho, and have compiled 9 short videos of some of these experiences these are on the “Cost of Uncovered Soils” playlist on SD NRCS’s YouTube channel. Please also feel free to follow Growing Resilience on your favorite social media outlet where you’ll see the above stories come out during the week that we remember the day of the derecho. As is typical of our human condition, we are slow to learn; the May 1 dust storm near Farmersville, Illinois that killed 7 people in traffic is a stark reminder of that notion. Was it luck that folks weren’t killed in South Dakota? I don’t know, but what I do know is that if our fields were covered with residue or some sort of small-grain or cover crop canopy, we could appreciably mitigate the consequences of such a storm if we were to see those winds again. Pass this on. Share. Let’s do all we can so that we, our children, or our descendants don’t have to see a storm like this again. ____________________________________________________________________ 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

The annual bird watching tour in South Dakota is fast approaching, and it promises to be an exciting event for bird enthusiasts and nature lovers alike. This year's tour will be hosted by Jeff & Kim Zimprich, who have a wealth of experience in bird watching and conservation. Participants are encouraged to bring their digital cameras and binoculars to capture the stunning sights of the birds, livestock, and wildlife in the area. The tour will take place on June 2-3, 2023, at Pasque Hill on Beaver Creek in Brandon, SD. Current members can attend the tour for free, making it an excellent opportunity for anyone looking to explore the beauty of South Dakota's prairies. As with any outdoor excursion, please dress appropriately and wear sturdy, enclosed footwear since the terrain may be uneven, and the weather can change quickly, so it's essential to come prepared with clothing that protects against the elements and potential injury. Presentations from landowners and conservation experts will cover various topics related to bird conservation and habitat management. Here are some examples of what will be covered: 1. Habitat restoration and management: Landowners and conservation experts will discuss different techniques for restoring and managing bird habitats, such as prescribed burning, invasive species management, and the creation of wildlife corridors. 2. Threats to bird populations: Experts will discuss the threats facing bird populations, such as habitat loss, climate change, and pollution, and what can be done to mitigate these threats. 3. Monitoring bird populations: Experts will talk about the importance of monitoring bird populations, and how different techniques, such as bird banding and citizen science projects, can be used to gather data on bird populations. 4. Working with landowners: Landowners and conservation experts will discuss how they can work together to promote bird conservation and the benefits that can come from these partnerships. 5. Bird-friendly land management practices: Landowners will discuss how they have implemented bird-friendly land management practices on their properties, such as the use of native plant species and the creation of bird nesting boxes. 6. Success stories in bird conservation: Experts will share examples of successful bird conservation projects, and what made them successful. The annual bird watching tour promises to be an unforgettable experience for anyone who attends; this is an excellent opportunity for you to immerse yourself in nature, learn from experts, and witness the beauty of South Dakota's wildlife. Anyone interested in bird watching or nature conservation should mark their calendars for June 2-3, 2023, and join the tour. To Register visit: https://sdgrass.org/bird-watching-tour/#Bird-tour ____________________________________________________________________ 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

For this week’s “Resilience Rodeo”, rancher Doug Hansen talks about the importance of native species in the grasslands, and how rapidly he saw them come back with proper, deliberate management. Born and raised on the ranch, Doug Hansen has learned that there’s a lot more value to healthy ranching practices than healthy grasses and cattle. “It’s an inherited gene of enjoying the ranch lifestyle, and so as my kids now are having babies and I’m surrounded with grandchildren, I see it a huge asset to be involved in the ranching operation again. When I take my grandchildren out across the prairie, picking wildflowers or looking at various forbs and grasses, or riding horses through and moving cattle, they gain a lot of knowledge, a lot of life experiences from doing that. I think that’s very important.” 1) What one thing have you done that's been most important for the success of your operation, if you were to say there was one thing? Well, I think the one thing that's been most successful to our operation is water. So, that South unit, when we acquired that a few years back and our flowing well quit, I had already engaged with the NRCS on bringing water in, and when that well quit on us, I guess that was the hint that, hey, we better bring water in. So, we put in a couple miles of pipeline, and I think we got about seven water sites on that, and that just gave us the opportunity. Now we can move cattle wherever we want to and not worry. So, water's your biggest thing. If you've got water, you can move cattle anywhere and whatever angle, direction you want to do your layout on. That's number one. Number two, put in some permanent high-tensile fencing, and then, from there, it's just changing your management styles for your resource concerns. 2) Can you recall a moment or time when the light bulb went on for you to change the way you were grazing? I think the light bulb went on when I started becoming more interested in the native species, and, my brother, Jeff, being a botanist and pointing out a lot of different things. We have an underground house, and I remember when we laid sod over the roof, that we had onions growing on top of the roof of our house, and those native, wild onions. I think the light bulb really got bright though ... For some reason, I went to some grasslands conference over East here, and Gabe Brown was speaking at it and a couple of the grazers. Anyway, then it was off to grazing school and then hanging out with all the people involved in the SD Grassland Coalition. And from that, we then have hosted a bird tour through the Grasslands Coalition, and we've also hosted a pasture walk, and yeah, I love sharing the natural beauty, and I love sharing the practice. 3) What surprised you most when you changed the way you were grazing? I think the big thing was that the first year I went in and completed an early season burn, then did an early graze on the invasive species that quickly regrew. We pulled out of that area and left it to recover all summer long. There was regrowth of warm-season native species that we've never seen before along with the big bluestem, switchgrass, and indiangrass. It was pretty impressive and quite rewarding to see that. 4) What would you say is the biggest misconception people have, who are not managing their grazing system for resiliency and soil health? I think the challenge to someone to come into this is, when your mentality is, "Wow, there's grass there. We need to leave the cows in here longer." And so, we're like, we're wasting something, but to get the big picture, you're not wasting something. It's a challenge to talk somebody into it. It's that what you left is where your energy and your solar collection is working for you. I can't help but think of the grassland as the solar collectors out there. If I can clip all the solar collectors off, I have no way to get this energy into the soil to feed the microorganisms. I need solar panels out here sticking up, collecting energy from the sun and feeding that subterranean life. 5) Is there something that you'd still like to do that you haven't done yet to improve your soil health or grazing system, something that's on the horizon? Yeah, where we have a lot of heavy thatch, from little bluestem for instance, where we see a heavy thatch, that the cattle don't want to go in and graze that. So, I have areas that I think I can improve the soil health and increase the diversity by maybe narrowing in and clustering the livestock in to get better hoof action and such. The other thing, the battle I'm on right now, is with the cedar trees. I did two burns this spring. I had deferred two paddocks last year, and here, just a few weeks ago, the NRCS helped me do some burns. I did the burns to reduce the cedar tree population but also to enhance the diversity of the plant culture. We’ve yet to see what happens with that, the results. 6) What advice do you have for someone who is considering changing their grazing system to one that's better for building soil health? If somebody is considering changing their grazing system from a season-long grazing into a managed grazing system, just start small. Start with what your resources are. So, if you've got one water tank and one pasture, split it, and just start small, and you'll start seeing some results on that. Don't jump into it and just change the whole environment because you'll make mistakes. You have to learn along the way. Go slow, but go deliberately and analyze what you see happening. I think, from there, you can start adding water, adding fences, and you can do a lot with polywire that has no permanent impact. So, that'd be my recommendation to give it a try. 7) When you walk across your grasslands, what do you look for as an indicator of healthy grassland and healthy soil? If I'm either riding my four-wheeler across, maybe doing some spot spraying on some thistles, or I'm riding a horse out through the pasture to go move some cows, my eyes are on the ground constantly. And pretty soon you start developing this, I don't know if it's like a radar, you just start seeing plant species, and you say, "Okay, I've got western wheat. I've got brome. I've got my porcupine, my green needle," and so you're just a rolling inventory. Once you recognize it, you're just taking this all in, and I think that's part of the monitoring. So, when you're out there to see the changes in the landscape. I use some photography for that, but it's just kind of a mental awareness of what you see change in the landscape; you start seeing all these forbs. We didn't see a lot of forbs out on the prairie today because of the time of the year. But we could see just the pasque flowers. There were hundreds of thousands of pasque flowers out there [this Spring], and you can see they're going to seed now. So, that, eyes on the ground, and just watch the change in diversity. 8) What are the signs that your land is resilient, and what does resiliency mean to you? When I think of the resiliency of the land, I think that all comes from the diversity of it. The diversity is a thing that I see that makes the landscape resilient. We have an inventory of over 200 species on a native prairie, and that's what's bringing in the resiliency. In order to maintain and grow those species, you have to manage your grazing. If you abandon property, it'll just all go to invasive. If you overgraze it constantly, it'll go to invasive. So, it does take management to grow that diversity and to grow that production. 9) There are three important grazing management Rs; rotate, rest, and recover. Which one of the three do you relate the most to, and why? I don't know. Of the R’s in the resiliency of the rangeland, I'm going for roots. I want to see root structure. I want to see roots that are 12 feet deep, and to have that, you need to have the remaining Rs. You need the rest. You need the recovery. You need all of that to get roots. But my goal is to have water infiltration and soil health, and that's going to take care of the rest of it. The management is what we do from up here, but what's happened under there, that's really the objective, to get under there, under the surface, under the grass. I want that root base. I want that deep root base. _____________________________________________________________________ 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

Soil health is essential for productive and sustainable farming practices. Farmers and landowners are constantly seeking new and innovative ways to improve soil health on their farms. You can gain knowledge and skills in soil health management by attending the 2023 South Dakota Soil Health School. The 2023 South Dakota Soil Health School will be held August 28-30 near Garretson, SD, on the farms of Anthony Bly and Bruce Carlson. The agenda will feature classroom-style presentations from producers and technical experts from across the state and region and hands-on experiences in the field. The school will also include a discussion of area producers' challenges and successes with various methods for improving soil health. Farmers and landowners can learn about the latest research, tools, and strategies for improving soil health. During the 2023 South Dakota Soil Health School, attendees will learn about the following: Living organisms in the soil and how they contribute to soil health. Attendees will learn about the physical structure of soil and how it affects soil health, as well as the chemical properties of soil and how they influence soil health. The school will teach attendees how to take soil samples and interpret soil test results. Cover crops and crop rotations are essential in improving soil health Instructors will cover how to select, plant, and manage cover crops to improve soil health. Attendees will also learn the benefits of crop rotations and how to plan a rotation to improve soil health. Both cover crops and crop rotations add to diversity, a key principle of soil health. Tillage practices and nutrient management Reduced tillage practices and nutrient management are important to improve soil health and crop productivity. Instructors will teach attendees the benefits of reduced tillage practices and how to implement them on the farm. They will also learn how to manage nutrients to improve soil health and crop productivity. Grazing management Attendees will learn how grazing management can affect soil health and how to implement grazing practices to improve soil health. Attendees will also learn how to assess soil health and track changes over time. Registration for the 2023 Soil Health School is available online or by mail. The tuition fee is $150 for individuals and $75 for each additional person from the same operation. The cost includes lunch, dinner, and refreshments. A block of rooms has been reserved for a nightly rate of $100 at the Holiday Inn Express and Suites in Brandon, SD. For more information about the 2023 Soil Health School, contact Cindy Zenk at sdsoilhealth@gmail.com or 605-280-4190. This is an excellent way for farmers and landowners to learn about the latest research, tools, and strategies for improving soil health on their farms. Attendees will learn about soil biology, physical properties, chemistry, testing, cover crops, crop rotations, reduced tillage, nutrient management, grazing management, and soil health assessment. The 2023 South Dakota Soil Health School is a great opportunity to learn from experts and gain hands-on experience in the field. ____________________________________________________________________ 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

This week on the “Resilience Rodeo”, Brad Magness Sr. tells us about the importance of diversity in his pastures, and not just diverse grasses, but also diverse forbs. Since purchasing his first piece of ground in 1979, Brad Magness Sr. has been focused on rotation; rotational grazing and also rotating and diversifying both warm- and cool-season grasses. With improvements to the land prioritized over profits, Magness shares that “if you’re good stewards, that is profitable”, and it’s shown through his decades of improvement and success. 1) What one thing have you done that has been most important to the success of your operation? I think one of the most important things we've done to make our operations succeed is learning the different species of grass and learning to rotate, to favor those species that are desirable to you. 2) Can you recall a moment or time when the light bulb went on for you to change the way you were grazing? Well, it's when we hired [retired soil conservationist] Elder Mueller. I don't know if there was a moment that the light bulb came on, but we were working with Elder Mueller to teach us about the range, and pasture, and rotational grazing and whatnot, and we gradually came into the management that we use. 3) What surprised you the most when you changed the way you were grazing? I think the thing that surprised me most when we changed the way we were grazing, is how much more carrying capacity our ranch had compared to before. 4) What would you say is the biggest misconception people have, who are not managing their grazing systems for resiliency and soil health? I think one of the things that people misunderstand about rotational grazing, is they think it's going to take a big investment in fencing and time and labor, and that's not the case. 5) Is there something you'd still like to do that you haven't done yet to improve your soil health or grazing system? If there's anything that I've done or that I'd like to do to improve our operation, it would probably be planting some more certified or foundation seed and harvesting seed for other people to be able to plant warm season grasses themselves. 6) What advice do you have for someone who is considering changing their grazing system to one that's better for building soil health? Well, nature builds soil, but it might take a hundred years for it to build an inch of topsoil, and it takes very little time to erode that, if you graze too tight and you let the wind blow it away, or whatnot. I would encourage people to graze, but not necessarily intensively graze. I would encourage people to not harvest more than 50% of the current years' production by weight, so that they're not suppressing grass that they want to favor. 7) When you walk across your grasslands, what do you look for as an indicator of healthy grassland and healthy soil? As I walk across the prairie, one of the things I look for is diversity in the plants that are there, and that includes not just the grasses, but the forbs. A lot of people don't think that those broad leaves are anything but weeds, but they're not. Cattle will browse them. They don't necessarily relish them, but they're part of a healthy range land. 8) What change have you made that you first thought would not work? The first field that we planted to switchgrass, we crawled around on our hands and knees after we had sewn that down and you might find a plant every square yard. I thought, oh, my land, this is terrible. And old Elder Mueller told us, “Oh no, you've got a good stand here”, and I thought, “this old guy doesn't know what he's talking about”. Just be patient; it grew up thicker than dog's hair. 9) What are the signs that your land is resilient and what does resiliency mean to you? I think one of the signs of resilience is the ability to withstand and recover from drought. This spring was really dry and, we're filming this in the middle of July, you don't normally get moisture this time of year out here. But, we rested a lot of the pastures. We didn't graze too tight on the ones that we did utilize. Resilience to me means, look at how fast they rebounded after getting a little shot of rain. 10) Which do you relate to most and why, rotate, rest, or recovery? Well, between rotate, rest, and recover, we've utilized all of them. Bought a piece of ground that we ended up having to rest it for two years, because it had been so badly abused. Whether that's rest or recover, I don't know. But now it's not the worst looking ground that you've seen. I think rotation is important. I think resting between, going around... It even gives you the opportunity to re-graze some places, but you've got to have that rest in between. I don't know that I'm going to highlight one over the other, like I said, we've utilized all three of the R’s. 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

As a rancher or farmer, you know that healthy and productive soil is crucial for your livelihood. Soil health affects crop and forage production, which is the primary source of income for most ranchers and farmers. That's why understanding Dynamic Soil Properties is so important. Dynamic Soil Properties are properties that change over a short time (e.g., a few years or a human life as opposed to geologic time) time due to natural or human-caused factors. These properties include soil organic matter, soil structure, soil water retention capacity, and soil biological activity. By monitoring these properties, ranchers and farmers can make informed decisions about land management practices to improve soil health and productivity. Soil Organic Matter Soil organic matter is the amount of plant and animal material that has decomposed into the soil. This property plays a crucial role in soil fertility, nutrient cycling, and water retention. Soils with high organic matter content are more fertile, hold more water, and are more resistant to erosion than soils in the same series with less organic matter. By monitoring soil organic matter, ranchers and farmers can better understand and utilize the soil's nutrient holding capacity, water retention ability, and overall soil structure. Soil Structure Soil structure refers to the arrangement of soil particles into aggregates (think of BB’s or cottage cheese, or grape nuts) or clumps. Good soil structure is essential for water infiltration and retention, air exchange, and root penetration. Soil compaction can lead to poor soil structure, reduced water infiltration, and decreased crop and forage production. By monitoring soil structure, ranchers and farmers can adjust tillage methods and implement practices that promote good soil structure. Infiltration Rates Soil water infiltration refers to the process of water entering into the soil surface. This happens when rainwater, irrigation, or other sources of water come in contact with the soil surface and begin to move through the soil. The rate of infiltration is affected by the physical properties of the soil, such as its texture, structure, and compaction, soil moisture content, as well as by the intensity and duration of the water application. More recently, we see that factors like the presence of a plat canopy, soil organic matter, and soil structure also influence infiltration rates. The ability of soil to allow water to infiltrate is important for plant growth, groundwater recharge, and erosion control. Soil Water Retention Capacity Soil water retention capacity refers to the ability of soil to hold and release water. Holding and releasing water requires a diversity of pore sizes, larger pores allow water and air to flow through rapidly, while smaller pores tend to hold on to water. Soils with high water retention capacity can reduce irrigation needs and increase crop and forage yields. By monitoring soil water retention capacity, ranchers and farmers can adjust irrigation practices and implement practices that promote water conservation. Soil Biological Activity Soil biological activity refers to the microorganisms (typically we think of bacteria, fungi, protozoans and nematodes) and other living organisms that inhabit the soil. These organisms play important roles in nutrient cycling, soil fertility, and plant health. Soils with high biological activity can improve nutrient availability and reduce the need for fertilizers. By monitoring soil biological activity, ranchers and farmers can adjust fertilization practices and implement practices that promote biodiversity. In summary, Dynamic Soil Properties are crucial for ranchers and farmers because they provide valuable information about soil health and productivity. By monitoring these properties and implementing appropriate land management practices, ranchers and farmers can improve soil health, increase crop and forage production, and promote sustainable and resilient agriculture. If you want to learn more about Dynamic Soil Properties and their relationship to land use and management, I encourage you to watch this video: In this video, you'll learn about the key factors that influence Dynamic Soil Properties, the importance of measuring and monitoring these properties, and how they can be used to predict soil change and inform land management decisions. ____________________________________________________________________ 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

This week’s “Resilience Rodeo” is with SD NRCS Rangeland Management Specialist, Jay Hermann. Jay understands the importance of seeing positives and negatives in-person, and he uses those experiences to guide management suggestions as he walks pastures with producers. An Area Rangeland Management Specialist for South Dakota’s NRCS, Jay does not ranch himself but rather has seen and experienced the successes and failures of many ranchers in his area and uses those experiences to guide others to better management practices. When it comes to soils, he loves seeing structure and root mass to indicate successful practices. “This is what’s going to build our resilience, because these roots can go down 12, 15 feet into the soil and look for water in them dry years. It’s also bringing in nutrients and it’s allowing infiltration to happen.” 1) What’s the one thing that you believe is the most important thing to the success of SD ranchers? The one thing that I want to get through a continuous grazers head is that they need to look at their grasslands differently. They look at that resource as grass; “it's feed for my cows”, and that's all it is to them. They need to look at it as a system, as an ecosystem. And that ecosystem needs to work for them, and not them working for that ecosystem. They're putting way too many inputs into these things right now that they don't need to. If they have a healthy ecosystem, they have a healthy rangeland, they don't need those inputs that they do on tame grasses or anything else. They really need to change their mindset. If I can have them just look at that resource from the raising of the grass or growing grass, rather than growing cattle, I think I got the first step in there. From there it takes off on its own. Then they start asking different questions. They start asking the right questions. And then they start seeing things differently. 2) Talk to us about a moment when the light bulb went on for you as a rangeland management specialist? When I was younger in my profession, we kind of went through the steps as a conservationist and stuff like that, but the light bulb was really dim then. It started really getting brighter as I started working with better producers that really took the time to kind of sit there and go, this is why I do this. This is why I do that. When I sat down with those people as a young professional, they taught me things. After I learned those facts and those ways of looking at things, then it was much easier. This is the way we need to go. This is the way we need to do things. Then as I matured in my profession, I got to see what the soils are doing, what the roots are doing. How does that react with the environment that we're in? And it all comes together then. So, it takes some time. It takes learning. 3) What would you say is the biggest misconception people have who are not managing their grazing systems for resiliency and soil health? The most common misconception is that it takes a lot more time. They don't have the time to do this. If you really talk to these people that do this a lot, and they've been doing it for a number of years, they'll say it takes way less time to move my cows, to rotate through my pastures, to give it that recovery, to give it the rest, than it does just to throw my cows out there. They're not fighting the disease problems, they're not fighting hoof rot, they're not fighting pink eye. Conception rates in the herd improve so they're making more money. The economics are there. They're spending less money on the land. So, in less time, basically. I mean, these cattle will adapt. Even buffalo will adapt to being moved. When it's time to move, they'll let you know it's time to move and they'll move within a few minutes. Basically, only thing you're doing is opening and shutting the gate. So yeah, one of the biggest excuses or misconceptions is the time and the labor. And it's not there. There is some, I'm going to not lie. There is some at first. You got to set it up. You got to do some thinking, but once it's there, it's ready to rock and roll. 4) What advice would you have for someone who is considering changing their grazing system to one that's better for building soil health? What I would recommend to ranchers starting out down this path is educate yourself. And don't take my word for it, go to the people that you know that are already doing this and talk to them. See how they're doing and how they like it. Go to some workshops, go to grazing schools, or other workshops that are around and educate yourself on this stuff. The last thing I want to do is be the guy that says, “you got to do this”. No, I don't want to be that guy. My job is to put the ideas in your head and help you get to where you want it to go. But you’ve got to set your goals and you’ve got to do some education on your own too. Figure it out, how you want to do it. I'll help you get there. I will tell you the pros and the cons of it. But yeah, let's go from there. Educate yourself. 5) When you walk through pastures and grasslands with producers, what indicators of healthy grassland and healthy soil do you look for? When I'm out with a producer on a pasture, I'll show them what the cattle are grazing right now. I look at the diversity of the plants, and then I say, now look and see what they're grazing. A lot of times we'll walk around with them, and I go, “look, we got big bluestem this short, we got little bluestem this short”. A lot of our natives are just down right to the ground. They walk around a lot of these cool season grasses that are tall, but they're brown at that time of the year, and they still think they have forage out there. Well, they don't. The livestock are not eating what you think they should be eating. They're eating everything else. And so just to point that stuff out to them and start to get them down that other path of thinking, that's what I look for. It's got to have that diversity to it so that that can be pointed out to them to get them to realize really what's going on out there. 6) What are the signs that grassland is resilient and what does resiliency mean to you? If I walk out and I see a really good native piece of ground, especially in a dry year, that's where it stands out the most. You go out there on a good native piece of ground in a dry year, you'll see good plants that are still healthy, and green, and alive, and growing. Then, across a fence or across the road you look at a degraded rangeland piece, or grassland, and you'll see a lot of dead dying plants or dormant plants. And you just look at the difference there. That's a big plus right there, the water is still infiltrating in them. The soil is alive. The plants are healthy. The cattle are happy. You go across the road where you have a degraded piece and the cows are mooing. They're standing by the fence or reaching through the fence, looking for any green nuggets growing. Those resources are struggling. 7) When we talk about the importance of grazing management, we often refer to the Rs. Of the words rotate, rest, and recover, which one sticks out to you the most and why? Out of the three R's, the rest, rotate, and recovery, the one that stands out to me the most is the recovery. And when I'm looking at recovery, I'm looking at if my stand of grass in that particular unit is coming up the way I want it to. Am I getting the plants that I want to see? Am I getting my native grasses back and my forbs and my shrubs? The diversity out there is that all recovering because I did the rest and the rotation. That's to me is the most important one of the three. 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