While we talk a lot about the loss of grasslands to cool-season invasive species, the conversion of grassland to cropland is another significant source of loss of grassland habitat. The 2023 Plowprint Report highlights the extensive plowing of grasslands in the US and Canadian Great Plains. Using data from the USDA and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the report shows that in 2021, 1.6 million acres of grasslands were converted to cropland, totaling nearly 32 million acres since 2012. However, hope remains as 377 million acres of grasslands are still under various forms of management. To protect these crucial ecosystems, policy interventions are essential. Enforcing policies that promote conservation can help preserve the remaining grasslands in the Great Plains, benefiting both people and wildlife. The entire Plowprint Report is available at: https://www.worldwildlife.org/projects/plowprint-report _____________________________________________ _______________________ 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’re excited that Dakota Farmer has published an article (11/3/2023) by veteran journalist Kurt Lawton on adaptive grazing. Lawton draws you in in the first line (you’re going to have to read the article ) and from there takes the reader through the nuanced world of adaptive grazing. He draws from the principles of adaptive management set out by grazing management practitioner, consultant, and former academic, Allen Williams. Still, he applies this to a real-world picture that Rancher, Justin Thompson (Mobridge, SD) paints for us based on his experience with the cool season invasives, namely smooth brome, crested wheatgrass, and especially Kentucky bluegrass. Justin Thompson (left) with Rayn beer(right), SD NRCS Area Rangeland Management Specialist. Photo was taken by Mitch Kezar. Learn why sticking to prescriptions may get us into trouble, why sometimes, more hoof action (disturbance) is called for, and why observation is key to adaptive management. Here are a few quotes to whet the reader’s appetite: “I’ve never been more passionate and excited about agriculture now because of adaptive stewardship,” Williams says. “Good observation creates a keen intuition that makes producers far better decision makers.” Justin Thompson says: “There are no cut-and-dried answers, but I have the responsibility to improve and do the best I can while raising a family with this livelihood” Kurt Lawton used materials produced by GrowingResilienceSD including the ‘ Adaptive Grazing Masterclass ’ podcast , the ‘SD Rancher's Unique Approach to Manage Cool Season Invasives” podcast , and video material from a feature on adaptive grazing that GrowingResilienceSD will soon release. Read the full article [ here ] and start implementing these valuable insights on your own land. Your pastures will thank you for it! _____________________________________________ _______________________ 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

Today holds special significance for those who appreciate the vital roles played by soil and water in our world. We join the global United Nations World Soil Day (WSD) celebration. This year's campaign theme, "Soil and water: a source of life," brings to the forefront the profound interdependence of these two fundamental elements and the pressing need for integrated management to address their global challenges. This image illustrates the power of a live root in the soil, this pit was dug for spoil scientist, Dr. Ray Weil with the intention of illustrating that soils have depth and that we don’t grow our crops in flower pots. The Essence of Soil and Water in Our Lives It's a fact that over 95 percent of the food we rely on begins its journey on the land, taking root in the soil and nourishing itself with water. Water, in particular, plays a pivotal role in facilitating nutrient absorption by plants, a process essential for food production. However, the health of our soil is under threat, exerting immense pressure on our precious water resources. Soil Degradation and its Impact on Water Soil degradation, a growing concern, has far-reaching consequences for water resources. Soil erosion and compaction disrupt the soil's ability to store, drain, and infiltrate water. As a result, water infiltration and retention are compromised, leading to decreased water availability for both plants and organisms. The stark reality is that the fate of our water is inexorably tied to the well-being of our soil. The Power of Regenerative Management Amid these challenges, there is hope. Regenerative management principles emerge as our allies in preserving the vitality of soil and water. The principles, namely minimum disturbance, keeping soil covered, keeping a live root in the soil as many days as possible, managing for diversity (warm and cool seasons cash and cover crops, perennials and annuals) and reintroduction of livestock into the system (with appropriate adaptive grazing management) not only mitigate soil degradation but also offer a myriad of benefits. These practices enhance water retention, increase soil organic matter, increase nutrient recycling thus improving soil fertility, and promote biodiversity (think wildlife, especially valuable birds like pheasant and grouse). Soil: A Valuable Ally It's clear that soil, when nurtured and cared for (i.e., management).., becomes a valuable ally in ensuring food and water security. Beyond this, it plays a pivotal role in climate mitigation and adaptation. Healthy soil contributes to the fight against climate change through carbon sequestration, aligning with our global efforts to address this pressing issue. On this World Soil Day, let's commit to integrated management practices that preserve and rejuvenate our soil and water resources. As we do so, we not only secure food and water for future generations but also take meaningful steps towards a more sustainable and resilient world. Join us in celebrating World Soil Day 2023 and championing the cause of "Soil and water: a source of life." Together, we can make a difference. Happy World Soil Day! _____________________________________________ _______________________ 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”, Austin Carlson of the SD Soil Health Coalition shares his thoughts on the importance of educating yourself before diving into new practices for soil health and resiliency. Austin Carlson works with the South Dakota Soil Health Coalition, and with his wife manages both pasture and cropland near Garretson, SD. Farming was something he always wanted to do, but he struggled to get a foot in the door. For a while he worked assembling strip till equipment and teaching farmers how to use them. Through this work, Austin observed how expensive and labor-intensive conventional tillage can be. That got him started on the path to implementing soil health practices. Through attending soil health schools and the no-till example set by his father, Bruce Carlson, Austin is now an experienced advocate for soil health. Austin Carlson 1)    What is the one thing you've done that has been the most important thing to the success of your operation?   I think the biggest thing that’s been a success in starting the soil health journey was probably going to some of these schools. Just being able to start my farming career working more with the land and with nature I think was very helpful for my practice in the long-term than if I would have got to farming right out of college. I would have had a much more conventional mindset then and a larger learning curve, and I would have been more stuck in my ways if I’d learned these things 20 years down the road.   2)    Can you recall a moment when the light bulb went on for you that you realized soil health practice makes sense or that you should change the way you were farming?   The time that the light bulb went off for me to get interested in soil health was probably 2018 soil health school, everybody there was so welcoming. The rainfall simulator was very eye-opening for me.   3)    What surprised you the most when you started implementing soil health practices?   I think the most surprising thing about starting these new soil health practices could be the pushback you sometimes receive from local people in the community, people that haven't really learned about these practices. I make decisions, and sometimes they have been doing this a lot longer than me, and it’s sometimes a challenge when they think I should be going a different direction.   4)    What would you say is the biggest misconception people have who are not managing their farming systems for soil health and resiliency?   I think the biggest misconception I see with the soil health system that a lot of people have is that maybe you’re lazier in your farming operation or maybe on a really fringe budget, and that’s why you didn’t till or use conventional methods. When you’re driving down the road and you see a no-till field, with stalks standing up and maybe cows out grazing, and you just drop in with the planter– I think some people see that as a sign of laziness, or that you won’t achieve the same yields as the conventional-till neighbor. But I find that to be false. You have to be more in tune with your land and make very wise management decisions for it to work. And the yields– I’m not a seasoned farmer– but from working with my dad and doing the little bit that I’ve done, I’ve seen that the yields are just as good.   5)    Is there something you'd still like to do that you haven't yet done to improve soil health on your farm?   Something I’d like to do to improve the soil health on my farm would be to keep building that soil structure better. I’m transitioning some fields that were conventionally tilled and I can see a difference from my dad’s fields, who’s been doing no-till longer, versus this newly transitioned field. I have a little ways to go on building that soil structure. I think planting will get easier in time as we build the structure, because this spring it was tough.   6)    What advice would you have for someone who is considering changing their farming system to one that's better for building soil health?   Some advice I’d give somebody who’s looking to transition would be to get connected with people who are on this journey already. The soil health coalition, the grassland coalition, NRCS folks, I have found them all to be very, very helpful and instrumental in me really buying in and believing in these practices. You really need to be connected. Because if you’re just making the change, and you’re still running in the same circles with people who are not interested in these practices, it can be kind of depressing and you might be tempted to go back to your own ways, and in that case, you won’t get to see the exciting parts of farming, I think.   7)    When you walk across your croplands what do you look for as an indicator or as indicators of soil health?   An indicator I look for of healthy soils is to not have erosion. I can remember some of these hills after big rain, I mean, you’d almost feel kind of sick. Like knowing I had a part in creating these rills that are forming into little gullies. So now I look, after it rains, I don’t want to see any soil that moved.   8)    Was there a change that you’ve made that at first you thought would never work?   I guess a change that I made that at first I didn’t think would work, I look back to when my dad was doing some of his first no-till corn, and I was in the mindset that probably that isn’t the best thing to do around here. I thought we needed some amount of tillage to warm up the soil and get the fertilizer placed properly. So, I was on that strip-till mindset. But I’ve definitely been proven wrong and seen a lot of success since.   9)    What signs are you seeing in your cropland that your croplands are getting more resilient?   The signs I see for resilient cropland is the soil staying in place.   Sometimes no-till crops can look a little rougher or behind conventionally tilled fields early in the growing season, but as the season progresses, the no-till catches up and looks just as healthy, if not greater plant health than the conventionally tilled fields. Minimizing erosion is the key for me. Like last summer, we got a couple-inch downpour and I remember some of the neighboring fields, they had a bunch of soil wash into their ditch, even gravel washing off the road that came from some conventionally-tilled fields. In both of those occasions they had to literally dig material out of the ditch. By not having that around our fields, I think that’s a sign of success.   10)  What does the word resiliency mean to you?   Resiliency means to me to be able to withstand some of the extreme weather conditions. I think the upper Midwest is just a very unique area, you know, it can be really, really dry, it can be really, really wet. To have resilient soil that can sustain through those dry periods, and on the flip side, if you can filter that water and put it deeper in the soil profile on the wet years, it’s just a way more resilient scenario. Even just having cover over the soil surface to buffer that temperature. You’re not getting the high spikes of the high temperatures and then really, really cold drops because you don’t have insulation or anything covering the soil.   11)  What indicators do you have that healthy soil practices also make sense economically to you?   Some indicators of soil health that have improved financially for my farm, I would say, not doing any tillage has helped save a huge fuel cost. I’m young in my farming journey so I have to rent a tractor every time I need to do something. I need to pay for that fuel and somehow track the hours I’m putting on the equipment. If I had to do an extra couple passes of tillage, it would add up. Another thing I think about when I’m filling up the tractors with fuel is the total number of gallons that have gone through that pump on the fuel barrel. It’s just kind of eye-opening when you think about it, we could have shaved off a third or half of those gallons over the course of time if we had been in a no-till system earlier. So, when you start putting a dollar figure to it all, it adds up very quickly. ______________________________________________ ______________________ 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 Casidy Spencer Drs. Liz and Rick Haney are soil scientists living in Temple, Texas. The two met during their graduate studies at Texas A&M – Rick earning a PhD and Liz at the time, working her Masters. Leading up to this, Rick had worked with many farmers and seen firsthand how difficult the lifestyle seemed. “When I went to grad school, my main objective was to come up with something that would help [land managers] do something… Soil testing seemed to be the area where I could have the greatest impact,” says Rick.   Dr. Rick And Liz Haney Developing the Haney Soil Test His first step was to investigate soil health tests of the past. He was shocked to learn that only 40% of the nitrogen applied ended up in the plant. When testing extractable carbon, he found that the tests didn’t monitor the soil respiration, the actual activity of the soil microbes. It became starkly clear to Rick that as a scientific community, ‘we’ve overthought the whole process”. When using harsh extractants like hydrochloric or sulfuric acid in the labs, soil doesn’t behave as it does in the field, which can result in ineffectual or skewed data. Similar to traditional farming practices, human technology was being overemphasized, whereas natural processes needed to come to the foreground. “We try to bring a little bit of uncommon sense to this work,” says Rick. Thus, the Haney test was developed. This test evaluates soil health more comprehensively than traditional methods, emphasizing three critical aspects: water-extractable carbon and nitrogen, the 24-hour CO2 burst test, and the H3A extraction method for minerals.   By mimicking rainfall, Rick was able to organically measure water-soluble organic carbon and nitrogen, determining these chemicals’ levels in the soil. This way, the added phosphorus and nitrogen necessary to grow control plot yields could be measured. “What we look for in pretty much any sample is, at the very least, a 1:1 ratio of organic to inorganic nitrogen,” explains Rick. By discerning organic nitrogen levels, not measured in standard soil tests before, producers have the major added economic benefit of avoiding overfertilization.   Microbes breathe, just like humans, taking in oxygen (O2) and giving off carbon dioxide (CO2). Rick realized that by quantifying microbial respiration, you can measure the relative health of their environment. As Liz expresses, soils move from dry to wet conditions throughout a day. In dry conditions, some of these microbes may die or shut down. When wet conditions return, microbes will reengage in activity and experience a big boost in respiration. “So by measuring respiration, you are basically measuring the [microbial] biomass in the soil,” says Liz.   The name for the H3A extraction process derived from the names of the four who developed the method: Rick and Liz Haney, Liz’s professor Dr. Hossner, and a colleague Jeff Arnold. To develop this method, Rick started by taking the pH of various samples using common soil extractants.   “What shocked me is that all the pHs were driven either very high or very low. So you run over the buffering capacity of the soil when using traditional extractants,” explained Rick. “In other words, its inherent qualities are out the window.”   Thus, the H3A method uses a mix of mild organic acids as an extractant to avoid stripping soil of its natural qualities. This innovative approach extracts minerals like potassium, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, and minor elements, simulating the natural soil processes more accurately than traditional methods.   The Impact of More Effective Soil Testing This new means of testing gives farmers and land managers hope for their soil and courage to make change. Gleaning more accurate insight on their soil quality enables farmers to confidently make adaptive, regenerative choices with their land. “I’ve had people say, ‘I wasn’t aware of this before, thank you so much for this educational opportunity, I now have hope that I can go home and actually implement the changes I’vewanted to,’” said Liz. “It just spreads and grows, and then they help another person. I think that’s what so great about soil health community in general.” The Haney’s ultimate goal is to try to move the needle, one farmer at a time, toward a healthier world. “Nutrient density and increasing the health of our plants and people is the ultimate goal once you improve the soil,” Liz expressed. “The quality of the food we’re eating is important, especially since people are suffering from chronic diseases that we didn't see 50, 60 years ago.”   After retiring from the ARS, Rick continues his work as a technical director for a commercial soil test lab. After leaving a job in the corporate world, Liz now is co-owner of a company called RegenAg that educates and consults with farmers and nonprofits on their regenerative journey. Says Rick, “The biggest takeaway that I've had in the last 15 years is seeing farmers that had no hope, have hope.” To listen to Rick and Liz’s conversation with Buz Kloot and Joe Dickie, visit the Growing Resilience website at: https://www.growingresiliencesd.com/podcasts/episode/dde3b37f/56-how-dr-liz-and-rick-haney-are-reshaping-soil-tests-and-the-agricultural-world-by-following-natures-blueprint Please note a disclaimer on this episode: while the Haney test is a highly useful soil assessment, the NRCS still does not endorse one soil test over another. Producers and land managers should still consult with their local NRCS office to ensure that whatever assessment they employ meets conservation practice and program standards. To learn more about what Liz and Rick are up to, visit them at:  http://regenag.com/web/ _____________________________________________ _______________________ 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

On this week’s “Resilience Rodeo”, Alex Boekelheide tells us how focusing on soil health has created a stewardship-based management approach to help make his family’s farm more profitable and resilient. The fifth generation on a farm that has primarily been corn and soybeans near Aberdeen, Alex Boekelheide incorporates diversity into the operation with a goal of continual improvement and stewardship. Shifting the farms approach to a longer-term view has helped them ensure that year to year they can remain profitable while also increasing the resiliency and overall health of their cash- and cover cropping systems. Alex Boekelheide 1)    What one thing have you done that’s been most important to the success of your operation?   I really think it's emphasizing the importance of continual learning. Knowing that there's always a better way to do things and never being stuck in a rut saying, “This is the only way” or “This is the best way”. Continuing to be your toughest critic, so to speak, and making sure that your practices align with the values of your operation. And that the practices that you're implementing are going to ensure the long-term success and sustainability for your operation, not only for the generation running it now but for future generations. It really starts with a mindset shift to guide decision-making.   2)    Can you recall a moment or time when the light bulb went on for you, when you realized that soil health practices make sense or that you should change the way you were farming?   As I mentioned before, stewardship is very important to us on our farm. We're in the northeast region of South Dakota and we could visually see some of our ground starting to go backwards. We just kind of hung our heads when we looked at some of the acres. We've been excessively wet the past few years and have also had extended periods of drought. It’s been the extremes on both ends of the spectrum. These conditions really identified the weaknesses within our cropping system. Since the mission on our farm revolves around stewardship and leaving things better than the way we found it, we looked in the mirror and realized we needed to make some changes. So, instead of waiting until conditions were beyond repair, we wanted to be proactive and start making some changes now while we still had the ability to improve things and continue to build in resiliency and efficiencies within our operation. That’s why we changed. Seeing the resilience that you can have within a cropping system when you start deploying soil health-minded practices, we have started to feel good about every acre again.     3)    What surprised you most when you changed the way you farm to include these soil health practices?   Changing our approach gave our whole team on our farm a new sense of purpose behind the stewardship role we have as farmers. It's easy to kind of get into a monotonous repeat mode on how we farm. Now we have re-lit the fire around the “why” we're implementing different practices. It’s exciting to be a part of. You can look at yourself in the mirror and know you're proactively trying to make a change to benefit and enhance the resources that we get to operate on.   4)    What would you say is the biggest misconception people have who are not managing their farming systems for resiliency or soil health?   The biggest misconception is thinking that soil health practices are too difficult to implement while remaining profitable. It can be done. It takes a little more creativity and effort than other cropping systems but it is a doable task and I feel each year gets a little easier as the system evolves. We're very much in our infancy in comparison to some of the farmers that have been doing this for 20 to 30 years. But it all starts with a mindset shift and starting to incorporate changes within a cropping system to build the overall resiliency, sustainability, and performance of your operation.   5)    Is there something you'd still like to do that you haven't yet done to improve your soil health on the farm?   Soil health testing is an area that I think we can improve upon to help us make data-driven decisions and quantify the progression of the functionality of our soils.   6)    What advice do you have for someone who's considering changing their farming system to one that's better for building soil health?   You have to minimize risk, and that means starting small. When you read about cover crops, no-till, soil health, all these diverse rotations, it sounds like sunshine and roses. But we all know that's not always reality. There's going to be challenges that you face that you didn't encounter before within a traditional cropping system. And that's why you have to start small to figure out some of those hiccups. So that when you do have problems, it's not going to put the financial position of your farm in jeopardy. Start by building confidence with your desired cropping system on a smaller percentage of your acres. Once you are comfortable, then start to roll these practices across all of your acres.   7)    When you walk across your croplands, what do you look for as an indicator of healthy soils?   Plant growth and water infiltration. We battle saline soils in our region and that problem can be amplified if you have standing water being lost through evaporation instead of being utilized by a plant. So that's a big driver of why we need to do things differently to make sure we're using our water efficiently through a living root. And as we continue to refine our data collection methods, some soil health and functionality tests will start to be indicators to measure how we're doing.   8)    What change have you made that at first you thought would never work?   No-till during a wet spring. You have to force yourself to be patient and let the soil come around on its own to be fit to plant versus forcing it to change with the tillage tool like we used to do in the past. In both 2022 and 2023, we battled through overly wet conditions in the spring planting window. We remained committed to our no-till goals and remained patient to wait for the right time to plant. In both 2022 and 2023, our crop yields were in the top 5 of our farm’s historical yields. That was an eye-opener for me because no-till is most challenging when conditions are wet and we were able to make it work and had a successful crop to follow.   9)    What are the signs your cropland is resilient and what does resiliency mean to you?   The soil’s ability to infiltrate water after big rain events is a big indicator of resiliency and health. Another big indicator to me is smaller swings in our average yields from year to year, regardless of the growing conditions. When you can have strong yields year in and year out through all the different weather conditions we face, that is resiliency. It may not be the home run every year. But if we can hit base hits and doubles consistently, that’s how a farm stays in business for generations.   10) What indicators do you have that healthy soil practices also make sense economically?   It requires a multi-year systems approach versus just year-to-year. This is where that mindset shift comes into play that I talked about earlier. The small grain acres may not be as attractive on paper, but when you wholistically factor in what that small grain acre does for you, it makes a lot of sense. Nutrient efficiencies, moisture retention, reduced herbicide use, yield improvement, and spreading the workload out on the farm are all factors that start to be influenced by these changes which in turn start to drive down the cost of production for each crop on the farm increasing profitability. ______________________________________________ ______________________ 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

Laura Kahler is the director of the South Dakota Grassland Initiative (SDGI) and a graduate of South Dakota State University. After studying agricultural education in college, Kahler gained experience in 4-H youth programs, bringing agricultural education and context to clubs, schools, and grant-funded programs. Kahler’s upbringing, studies, and background have coalesced to provide her with a unique perspective on South Dakota agriculture and habitat, culminating in a distinct understanding of the importance of collaboration and education to move the needle of regional land perspective and practice. Laura Kahler Laura Kahler is originally from Wisconsin, the daughter of a game warden with a background in state wetland conservation. This upbringing offered her a unique perspective rooted in conservation and appreciation of natural habitats, resources, and species. With this innate appreciation for the natural elements of an ecosystem, she set out to broaden others’ perspectives on what land is, what it needs, and what it offers. “You start asking yourself, how can we get other people to have the same mindset and larger appreciation?” Kahler explains. “To me, when I’m out hunting, it’s not just about shooting that pheasant down, it’s about being outside, appreciating the species I’m seeing. A lot of people who aren’t involved in either hunting or cattle production make assumptions about the ways that things are done and not recognizing that both groups are very instrumental in the conservation of the grasslands.” In college, Kahler met and married a Wildlife & Fisheries major with a range minor and with him began to ranch in Colome, SD, where the two have been for about a decade. Through this experience, Kahler began to learn more about the other side of understanding grasslands: the perspective of what a producer needs in order to support a functional operation. Prior to moving to South Dakota, Kahler’s Wisconsin education did not direct much attention to grasses. “Our schools and 4-H programs talked a lot about trees, but I didn’t really know that much about grasses. Grass was grass. And until I moved here and started learning more, grass was just the green stuff that was covering the ground,” says Kahler. “My appreciation has totally switched as I learned about the species and the characteristics, to the point where now I’ll be out pheasant hunting, and instead of looking for pheasants, I’ll be looking at the ground getting excited about all the grasses that I’m seeing.”   South Dakota Grasslands Initiative - The Inspiration This embrace of South Dakotan landscape was kickstarted by several different partners, especially the South Dakota Grassland Coalition.  The partners realized that that in South Dakota, diverse groups are very open to collaboration, however they realized that South Dakota would need more than openness to address the grasslands crisis. What was needed was some type of network for communication, from this need the South Dakota Grasslands Initiative was born. With funding that came in the fall of 2023, Kahler was brought on as executive director.   In her short time as executive director, she notes: “I had a group of about 10 individuals from different organizations that I was working with,” said Kahler. “Each person had a very similar vision of what they wanted. But it’s kind of like the story of the blind individuals all looking at the elephant and imagining something different. We needed to all get on the same page and be sure we were looking at this from the same lens so we could move forward. The summer involved getting all the paperwork ready to launch this, and I started in August.” One of the first intentions of the initiative was to reinvent who was considered a grassland partner. Traditionally, only those with explicit interest in grasslands were considered relevant to grassland management and decisions, such as ranchers or conservation groups. “But there are grassland partners beyond that,” explains Kahler. “Maybe it’s a person who works 8-5 in the office, but on the weekend, they go out hunting. Or maybe they just like to go bike through the grasslands, and just like to appreciate having that space and recognizing that part of being a South Dakotan is appreciating the grasslands.” The SDGI respects that real change begins with a recognition of the entirety of perspectives that are relevant to grasslands. Within Kahler’s first week in the position, she was a part of the Americas Grassland Conference. This event enlightened her to the extent of grassland awareness and the breadth of the movement. This event motivated her to play her part and carry her weight regionally. She returned to South Dakota fresh with optimism and strategy to develop SDGI; its mission, values, and ensuing projects.   SDGI - The Mission The mission of the South Dakota Grassland Initiative is to promote South Dakota grasslands through elevating public awareness and supporting those who want to make an impact, for the benefit of current and future generations. The core values of the initiative are: • Retention of South Dakota’s native prairie ecosystems • Science-based education and decision making • Acknowledgement of traditional knowledge • Discussion that honors opposing viewpoints and perspectives • Support for producers & landowners who want to improve grasslands • Recognition that diversified income streams are essential to sustainable agricultural operations for the benefit of all South Dakotans Kahler’s local work with the initiative seeks to support producers to make the best use of their land; for themselves, their family and their community. Culturally, there can be a lot of pressure to convert pasture or grasslands. “Even if that landowner recognizes that their family and community value the grassland, the soil, the birds, there can still be incredible pressure to make it profitable,” says Kahler. “I think it’s important that we provide the resources so that those who want to keep their land in grass have those resources there to say- help me learn how to be more profitable, help me use program.” Kahler would like to enlighten producers, farmers and ranchers to the wealth of options that exist to widen their operations: regenerative grazing systems that enrich grasses, partners that can support more holistic land management, and education that can enhance understanding of what healthy grasslands need. The SDGI aims to engineer something comparable to crop insurance regarding healthy grassland practices, offering support for land managers to try new techniques. “We’re not just looking at this from the hunter or rancher perspective, but also the rural community perspective. Grasslands are for everyone in the state,” says Kahler. “Through the initiative, we bring partners together to say, ‘What can we do to support those who want to keep their grasslands as grasslands, or even those with croplands that say- I have this marginal land, I want to revert it to grass, how can I do this? How do I enrich this as a habitat for wildlife, how can I find economic benefit from this land?’ Through the initiative, we’re hoping the partners can collaborate and address some of those questions for landowners.”   Long-term Projects and Goals Since the South Dakota Grasslands Initiative is a network of partners, collaborative communication is central. The first quarterly partner meeting of the SDGI was held in October, and the second in January. These meetings are spaces where anybody who identifies as a grassland partner in South Dakota can contribute and share what they are actively working towards, what they aim to do, and what support they can provide. Moving forward, the SDGI is organizing its first grasslands summit in March of 2024. The summit will be a collection of producers of all kinds, anybody with a vested interest in grassland health, gathering for education and productive discussion. The South Dakota Grasslands Summit will be held on Monday, March 18, and Tuesday, March 19, in Oacoma. This premier event will focus on opportunities, challenges, and the significance of the grasslands in South Dakota. It will offer something for everyone- especially those involved in agricultural production, ag finance, wildlife, community health, and natural resources. Attendees will also be able to participate in shaping the future of South Dakota’s grassland heritage. “Producers can hear stories from others explaining things such as, ‘Here’s how I added an enterprise, here’s how I made my grasslands more productive, here are programs available,’ and producers can then bring those fortifying ideas back to their operation. And even broader, even if financially one has no connection to the grasslands if they just value the grasslands or spend time there. Even if you just like going to take photos of grouse, come to the summit. We want to hear from you,” says Kahler. The summit is structured around a series of educational, social, and collaborative activities. Through the summit, even those who are on the periphery of industry or struggling with the designation of their land can have just as much of a voice as traditional partners. Furthermore, Kahler continues to utilize her background in agricultural education. For example, this year the theme of the national speech contest held by the Association of Conservation was ‘Working Grasslands, Why Do They Matter?’ Kahler saw this as an opportunity to not only encourage participation in the speech contest but also to distribute these speeches to high school teachers to bolster grasslands education in schools. To get more info or register for the Grasslands Summit visit: https://sdgrassinitiative.org/summit/ _____________________________________________ _______________________ 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

On this week’s “Resilience Rodeo”, Chris Nissen talks about the importance of not only trying new practices you’re curious about, but the importance of having the mentality that it can and will work, and that just because something doesn’t change immediately doesn’t mean that it isn’t working. In the southeast corner of SD, Chris Nissen farms primarily corn and soybeans with his dad. They also grow cereal grains to provide themselves with cover crop for the following year, and help their soils improve in the process. Decreased inputs and more time for himself and his family have shown Chris that the benefits of soil health practices span far beyond just his soils. Chris Nissen 1)    What one thing have you done that’s been most important to the success of your operation?   I think the number one thing is not being afraid to fail. Always try something. And to not worry about what the neighbors have to say.   2)    Can you recall a moment or a time when a light bulb went on for you that you realized soil health practices can make sense or that you should change the way you were farming?   Probably the biggest ‘aha’ moment was about four years ago. We had a really wet fall and at that time farmed a 120-acre piece that was just pure swamp. Three-quarters of that field I combined in four inches of water and the corn still had good yields. We are combining it not leaving a rut and the neighbors couldn't even combine. I had to slow down combining because the water would start to create waves and the header height would bounce.   3)    What surprised you most when you changed the way you were farming to include soil health practices?   Probably the amount of free time you pick up because you're not making multiple trips. The stress level goes down a little bit. Yeah. You still see the same yields and everything and it's like, I'm not making the passes, I'm not spending all the time and money out here. And the income is still the same. That was the surprising factor, for me.   4)    What would you say is the biggest misconception people have who are not managing their crop farming system for resiliency and soil health?   I think that everybody thinks that the yields tank. I mean, you don't need a yield test, you don't need way wagons to see that if your neighbors no-tilling that you're getting the same yield because all the combines hold the same amount of grain. You can watch your neighbor dump and see the semi-loads leaving the fields. I mean, everybody is paying attention. I guess I just see the amount of labor that our neighbors who do conventional tillage have to have compared to what we have and the amount of free time that I have compared to them. But, I don't know, nobody wants to try it and I don't understand why.   5)    Is there something you'd still like to do that you haven't yet tried to improve your soil health?   I think one thing I'd like to try is to figure out maybe a strip-till method that I can broadcast my cereal rye in between my strips and then have my strip that I plant into so I can leave my rye longer into my corn growing season without having an effect. I just haven't found anybody with a strip-till rig around me yet that will try that.   6)    What advice do you have for someone who is considering changing their farming system to one that's better for building soil health?   The biggest thing is just give it a try. If you are going to try it and go, you need to commit to just like “these 80 acres, I'm going to do this on no matter what, I'm going to make it work”. Have that sort of mentality that it's going to work instead of just, “well, I'll try it and see how it works.” You have to have the mentality that it WILL work. That's the biggest thing. Like this year around us, we're super dry. All these guys that said before, “oh I can't no-till, my planter’s not set up for no-tilling”. Well, this year we're super dry and they must have done a lot of work to their planters over the fall because a lot of them no-tilled this year! It was convenient this year so they do it, but they won't make that next step next year.   I saw a Craigslist ad probably three years ago that was a guy selling a four-wheel drive tractor. And the reason for selling it said “converting to no-till, have to take temptation out of the system”.   7)    When you walk across your croplands, what do you look for as an indicator of healthy soils?   Just, soil that isn't lumpy, look for earthworms, and the living roots, healthy plants and that my ground is staying put and blowing and washing away.   8)    What change have you made that at first you thought would never work?   I think that cover crops would probably be it because the first year we tried to cover crop, we killed it too close to planting and completely wrapped everything up on the planter. It was the worst 40 acres I'd ever planted in my life; it took me three and a half hours to plant those 40 acres. And then we realized that you can't spray it. You have to be either two weeks ahead of the planting or after planting.   And then a lot of what I've learned, too, is that there is the data out there that, like some people or government agencies put out, that do the test plots. But a small acre test plot is not necessarily a good learning curve. It’s not as replicable as going out a 40 or an 80 and doing it. Some of the data they do isn’t the same as the results that I get. My outcomes seem better than theirs. I think it’s just that instead of just being this controlled, small plot, you know, on the big scale, it seems to work better.   The mentor program that the NRC has set up seems to be really beneficial, too. I can take the things I've tried and failed on, and I can put somebody three steps ahead of where I was because I've tried this and I’ve failed. I went this way, and it seems to help. So then instead of them making the same mistake I did and having to learn, well, they can go this way and they can build on what I've done and come back to me and say, “well, I tried this and that's worked really good”. So basically, in one year, you know, when you have more people doing something, you can do five years’ worth of changes in one here.   9)    What are the signs your cropland is resilient and what does resiliency mean to you?   I think the signs are that I can go out there pretty much any time I want, drive across my fields, with any piece of equipment, I don't sink in and I don't leave ruts. And that the wildlife seems to stay in my fields more, and I just seem to have more of an ecosystem going on instead of just crops.   10) What indicators do you have that healthy soil practices also make sense economically for you?   My inputs have all gone down and my yields have gone up, so that in turn, my return on investment is higher. I just don't spend as much money and I have more free time now, and I still get the same out of it. ______________________________________________ ______________________ 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

On this week’s “Resilience Rodeo”, farmer Scott Hamilton tells how, when it comes to saline-sodic soils, you can have your cake and eat it too, but only if you change your mindset on what “productive” means in those spots. In south-central South Dakota, 90 miles east of the very center of the state, Scott Hamilton farms with his brother Jeff. They primarily grow corn and soybeans but also have cattle as well as other small animals including pigs, sheep, and poultry incorporated into their operation. The Hamilton’s have been working saline-sodic seep areas on their land for the last 20 years and have learned that the only way to face these areas is hand-in-hand with Mother Nature– seeding them back to perennial grasses and alfalfa and grazing livestock on them. They learned early on that continuing crops and chemical input on these saline seep areas only intensified and expanded their problems. Scott Hamilton   1) What is the one thing you've done that has been the most important thing to the success of your operation?   The one thing I’ve done that’s been most important to the success of my operation is to change my mindset. Question things and try to change the status quo.   2) Can you recall a moment when the light bulb went on that soil health practices started to make sense to you?   The light bulb went on for me about twenty years ago, when the saline-sodic spots were developing. We kept doing the same management and things weren’t getting any better. So,I’m over here working in a saline-sodic spot, and I looked across the fence and there’s a grass species and flora and fauna growing on the other side, and I’m like– right there, God gave us this. It’s a no-brainer. We’ve just got to work with it. Work with mother nature. Work with God and so forth. That’s when it happened.   3) What surprised you the most when you started implementing soil health practices?   What surprised me the most when we changed our farming practices is that it became very enjoyable. To see we have production, that we’re doing something versus taking away. It was really great to see the pheasant hunting or the hay production, or just the simple fact that we’re growing things in these areas that had not been growing things. That was very pleasant mental health-wise, physically, and economically.   4) What would you say is the biggest misconception people have who are not managing their farming systems for soil health and resiliency?   The biggest misconception is that we can just keep doing the same things and it’s going to go away. It doesn’t, it only gets worse. Part of that is policy, politics, and so forth. But, to do the same thing and expect different results is just borderline insanity.   5) Is there something you'd still like to do that you haven't yet done to improve the salinity situation on your farm?   In terms of trying to improve my salinity environment, we just need to get more diverse plant species there. I think the Hamilton land is only limited by five or six things. I think there’s way more species that could be there. I think if we can create the environment, then we could introduce more, and that might even become the most productive area. It’s all in how you want to look at it.   6) What advice would you have for someone who needs assistance with these saline and sodic spots?   Well, if you are fed up with the saline and sodic spots, the first thing you need to do is change your mindset, cause if you don’t change your mindset, you’re still going to go back to what you always did and that hasn't been working. So, first thing you need to do is change your mindset, realize that hay or grass is a crop, and then market it either through hunting or selling to the farmer or rancher, or selling it to the neighbor that’s going to compost. You know, there’s a lot of possibilities, you’ve just got to open your mindset.   7) When you walk across your croplands or grasslands what do you look for as indicators of soil health?   When I’m walking across my farmland or the grasslands, I’m trying to be more inclusive in my looking. So, I’m not just looking at, ‘Is there weeds, is there not weeds?’ I’m looking at species, how many species, how much insect population, the kind of wildlife I have there.Those are all signals, and if you’re doing things right, they’ll show up. I try to use those signals as an indicator that I’m going down the right path. Sure, you can measure it and test it and so forth, but you’re spending money you don’t have to, there are things in the environment that are telling you. Is the plant species green? Do you have wildlife? Do your animals have a healthy immune system? There are things that you don’t have to pay for that are telling you if you’ve got things going right.   8) What change have you made in the past that you didn’t think would actually work?   Well, you can sort of have your cake and eat it too. I think you can raise cover crops, graze them off, plant crops, and you can almost double crop in a year. You might not have the highest yield, but you might have the most economical. The most economical in terms of buying feed for the livestock. You might not have the highest yield in your crop production,but it is economically efficient, which I didn’t think was possible. I thought we’d get hurt in dry years, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised.   9) What indicators do you have that your land is becoming resilient?   The signs that our land is becoming resilient is that we don’t have these fluctuations of high yields, low yields. We’re turning unproductive areas into productive areas. I’d like to think we could increase our organic matter and humus content in our soil so we don’t become so reliant on the weather so we can make it through dry stretches and so forth.   10) What does resilience mean to you?   Resilience means what our forefathers went through. They came out here in a covered wagon, settled in a wide-open prairie, and still stuck around. And that’s what I want to do for our generation and the next generations. We want to set it up so they have the opportunity to have the options I had. ______________________________________________ ______________________ 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

On this week’s “Resilience Rodeo”, rancher Robert Boylan of Butte County, SD talks about the importance of water distribution in rotational grazing and working with nature even when she gives you drought. “I wanted to wear a hat, so I had to buy cows”, jokes Robert Boylan, a rancher and wildlife supporter in Northwest SD. Robert is the first to acknowledge that ranching is a constant learning experience. “I’m no expert. I’m not perfect. I’m not even, I may lose everything yet, but I’m doing what I can the best I can.” Through these constant learning experiences, Robert has developed a drought philosophy that sometimes requires cutting his number of cows but has led to a more successful, sustainable, and natural grassland operation. Robert Boylan   1)    What one thing have you done that has been most important to the success of your operation?   Probably the most important thing that I've done to economically survive ranching in this country... I'm going to say water distribution. Selling hay machinery was right in there, and calving later to work with nature more, I guess would probably do it. But [like] this year, it's hard to do anything if you don't get rainfall. I got a grass ranch and there's just not much rain.   2)    Can you recall a moment or time when the light bulb went on for you to change the way you were grazing?   I believe it was 2012 maybe, that I realized the importance of rest and rotate, because we just didn't get to use some pastures because there wasn't no water. I realized how early we could go back into them the following year when we did get water. It just dawned on me, that was what nature needed. Grass needs to go through a full cycle every so often to seed and do just what it was made to do. Buffalo didn't camp on these pastures all year round. Look at deer, they pass through here and then leave it.   3)    What surprised you most when you changed the way you're grazing?   What surprised me most was the workload and the profitability of it all, actually. It took a year or two. It's hard to get into the situation. You got to have numerous pastures, [but] bar none it's the best thing you can do for grasslands. I know that you can get by; I still got neighbors that go in the same time every year and they get by, but they've never increased their numbers. I don't think that soil's that healthy, I guess. It's expensive to do the first few years probably, but it really pays dividends in the long run. The workloads are way easier. The care of the fences and the health of the livestock... It's all good.   4)    What would you say is the biggest misconception people have who are not managing their grazing systems for resiliency and soil health?   Well, I ain't judging anybody to how they do anything. I don't know the economics of everybody's place, but I do know that I've still got 13 years of land payments. I've purchased everything, never been out of debt. And I know that it's making my payments, and they're fairly good size payments, by doing what we're doing. Boy, I think if they'd try it on part of their place, they would never go back to anything else. And if they ever calved later, I don't think they'd ever go back to anything else either. Some ranches are made for hayin’; this one isn't. But, yeah, everybody's situation is different. I don't judge anybody.   5)    Is there something you'd still like to do that you haven't yet to improve your soil health or grazing system?   Yes. I would like to try to improve stuff by introducing some yellow flowered alfalfa, some different forages on this thing so it my might come at different times a year. I never want to take away from the native grass. But if I could find something that I could interseed with it that's feasible to do and increase grazing capacity, I would sure do it. To me, it's all about the grass. These cows are going to come and go no matter what you do. Your best cow will raise the best calf. One year, she'll be gone. And if you take care of your grass and your ranch, that's what you got to do to stay in this business, I think.   6)    When you walk across your grasslands, what do you look for as an indicator of healthy grassland and healthy soil?   As I'm walking across the grasslands looking at stuff, I look for grasses that have got to run their full cycle and go to seed. I look for thatch or mulch that's left over. That breaks down into nutrients for everything, stops erosion. Crop covers are a big problem on this ranch with all the drainages. I'm always looking for invasive weeds or something, especially if it's out away from where it should be. But I love the land. I really do. I get up every day, happy.   7)    What change have you made that you first thought would never work?   One of the things I wasn't sure was going to work probably was cross fencing. I didn't feel there was a necessity for it to begin with. Because we run pretty good numbers, so we try to keep them in kind of mobs to rotate and rest. So, we split some pastures, and they’re not small. We're talking down to maybe 1,200 acres or 2,500 acres, but I wasn't sure that would return much by doing that when we got started rotating and grazing. It has. In my situation, that's as small as I want to go. Other people might have smaller places and smaller paddocks would work. But for this ranch, that was one of my concerns, I guess. I wasn't sure it was going to work very well.   8)    What are the signs that your land is resilient, and what does resiliency mean to you?   Resiliency to me is... I guess, producing at least as much beef production as it did the year before. Nature in itself is resilient. You look at stuff that's happened years ago and I think, "God, it [grew] back and it's healing up." And I guess I don't know... It does most of it on its own if you give it a chance. That's probably the biggest thing.   9)    Out of the three R's, what do you relate to the most? What do you think helps the most? Rotate, rest, or recover?   They all go hand in hand, but I'm going to say the resting part, probably. You can rotate too soon and not do any good at all, I would say. I know every time you open a gate for livestock, if it's rested a month, they're going to go on to gain weight. But there, you're only looking at the economics of it again. Long-term, you want your grass to be better, so you need to let that grass, at least half of it, run its natural course. And if I can afford to do it, I'm going to let big pastures rest for a complete year. If you rotate too quickly, I don't think you gain anything really. You're making money per se, but you ain't helping the grass. ______________________________________________ ______________________ 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

Mitch Faulkner - Spearfish, SD Photo Credit: Barrett Self By Buz Kloot The community was saddened to hear of Mitch’s passing after a long illness on 4/29/2024. If you’d like to skip this blog and get to hear Mitch Faulkner’s voice and see video of him, feel free to skip and go straight to the links at the end of this blog. When I have a lot on my mind, I tend to wake up at 3 in the morning and then do my best to try to go back to sleep.  Much of the time, my efforts are in vain, and I drift in and out of alternating thoughts and dreams.  This morning, Mitch Faulkner was on my mind. “Why” would you ask, “are you mourning Mitch?  He lived 1,700 miles away from you and you don’t even know his family!”.  Good question.  This note is a lot more personal than most of our blog posts are, but Mitch was ... is part of a community that I deeply care about, and now, as the ancient text says is a “time for mourning” but at the same time, it’s a time for remembering, this is my part.   One of the blessings I have is that I have been able through my work to meet with many ranchers, farmers, and practitioners in South Dakota during film shoots – these folks end up sharing their passion for the land with me and invariably I get to see a bit of their soul.  My friend Joe Dickie, who has infinitely more experience in visiting with farmers and ranchers says “you get to visit and maybe share a meal and then you fall in love with them!”.   The first time I met Mitch in October 2020 was at a gathering of ranchers and practitioners in Faith, SD, roughly the same time as I began my love affair with the prairie.  I didn’t get to spend too much time with Mitch that day, but he struck me as erudite and passionate about the prairie with definite ideas of restoration – I do remember that his opinion was that if we protect the riparian areas these parts would be the first to come back, given the availability of soil moisture around the streams and ponds.  We have some video of Mitch talking that day and I plan to go back and get some clips and make them available. My friend Emily Rohrer suggested I do a podcast with Mitch on drought planning and the drought tool in 2021 and I got to know Mitch and his passion a little better.  What struck me in this interview was the way he walked me through the drought tool , and in less than an hour turned me from a novice to a passably competent user.   Next time I met Mitch was in September 2022.  I was delighted to see him again and when I rode with him in his truck, he filled me in on the little 80-acre spread belonging to Craig Gardner we were to visit not five miles from Spearfish.  What excited Mitch was that, somehow, this little patch of land was unique.  Mitch’s face lit up when he told me, “Buz, this place is so diverse, and right here in Spearfish!”, and indeed it was.  We went through some rowcrop land and a field covered in a monoculture of almost waist-high smooth brome, but as we rounded a corner, we saw Craig’s little spread; patches of color here and there, lots of tell-tale red signifying big bluestem, and then on closer inspection, all sorts of grasses, plenty of western wheatgrass, sideoats grama (my favorite, and Joe Dickie tells me I pronounce it sideoats grandma) and forbs, abundant leadplant and silver scurf pea and if I remember correctly, prairie aster.  Yes, there was Kentucky bluegrass, but Mitch and Craig had a plan for it.  What animated Mitch that day was his love of the prairie and his passion for preserving it, but it was also his excitement about working with Craig, a newcomer to ranching, but someone with a wildlife biology background who was an eager student; Mitch delighted in his role of teacher and mentor. Mitch Faulkner Photo Credit: Joe Dickie We shot a lot of film that day, and like so many others, ended up not being fully explored and not made public, much to my regret.  When I heard about Mitch’s condition about a month ago, I made up my mind to produce something that honored Mitch before he passed and ended up digging the story out of the video we shot with Mitch and Craig that day.   In going over the video material of Mitch and Craig, I could kick myself for not having gotten this material into the public space sooner.  What I saw (and hopefully you will, too) from the video is Mitch’s deep concern for the loss of prairie habitat, especially the insidious invasion of tame cool season grasses (smooth brome, Kentucky bluegrass, and crested wheatgrass), his passion for and joy in the prairie and his joy in the fellowship of a kindred spirit like Craig Gardener.  The opening shot in the video of Mitch reflecting on his career seems to be both prescient and intensely poignant. This morning as I lay in bed and thought about Mitch’s family and friends and the huge hole his loss will leave, I thought “I don’t get it, I just don’t understand what the universe is up to”, I know that at some level, that’s OK, but it doesn’t hurt any less.  There was a part of me this morning that thought “Why Mitch and not me?”.  Most of us I think, if we are honest, “shrink before the mystery of death”, I do, at least, in spades. But I am reminded to ask for help to “live as those who are prepared to die and when our days are over to enable us to die as those who go forth to live”. I don’t know what Mitch wanted – when one has limited time on earth, I think family, loved ones, and friends take first place, work is way in the back.  I hope that some of this material will help honor Mitch’s legacy, and I do hope he doesn’t mind, knowing his generous spirit, I know he will forgive me if I have erred in my stumbling attempts to honor him. For those of us who remain, let’s continue the good work of restoring the prairie habitat through education and changing the culture one ranch, one farm, even one child at a time; this work, I am convinced has the potential to restore soil, water, air, plant, animals and human communities to become a true reflection of this vast, abundant, life-giving prairie’s true potential.   For more material on Mitch please go to the following links. Podcast: A Practical View of Drought Planning with Mitch Faulkner:  (also available on the SoilHealthLabs podcast show on your mobile phone. Videos: SD Grazing Stick Demonstration Growing Together: How Farmers/Ranchers And USDA-NRCS Are Teaming Up For A Regenerative Future ______________________________________________ ______________________ 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

Matt Huber By Cassidy Spencer   Matt Hubers began as a district conservationist for NRCS and is now one of two agronomists who work with Ducks Unlimited, where he is currently focused on implementing the tenets of soil health on cropland that were originally wetland habitats for waterfowl. His work, studies, and farming practice have led him to an informed, widespread understanding of the South Dakota salinity crisis. He says we need to address it now, before the losses are felt across South Dakota’s entire agricultural landscape.    Matt Hubers and his wife have lived on a farm for over twenty years but only purchased it fifteen years ago. For years, out his window, he observed the way locals managed the land, similar to many at the time with mixed enterprises– calving out the livestock and leaving them out on the whole plot of land until the fall when they had to begin fieldwork.   “So I was watching outside my window for years at this pasture– how it had some extremely heavily used areas, how the landscape was being dominated by smooth brome and Kentucky bluegrass, and this was at one-time native pasture. And how the species composition had changed from what it naturally should be, how productivity was going down, so then when our landlord sold it to us, I said well, there has to be a better and easier way to try to do this,” explained Hubers. “And that's when I got my own cattle, started cross-fencing, putting in water developments, putting some fire on the land. It makes me a better conservationist because I can relate much better to what these farmers have to go through as well. And I can see pretty clearly the little things, the practices and dispositions, that are leading our soils down a scary path.”   The Nature of Saline Seeps   Hubers explained that South Dakota, in recent history, essentially received the perfect storm for saline imbalances.    First, throughout the 90’s, much of South Dakota went through a wet cycle: a stretch of above-average precipitation that raised the water tables. South Dakota’s watershed is already rich in salts, seeing as the region was under an ocean thousands of years ago, leading to salt-rich Pierre Shale parent material.   Secondly, farming practices have changed. When Hubers first arrived in the region, about 35 years ago, he observed a diverse cropping mix with small grains, corn, and perennial grass, and hardly any soybeans.   “What has happened is that our cropping system now is essentially a conventional corn-bean rotation. So that means we have a fair amount of tillage, we have relatively short growing seasons where those crops are using water. And then whenever you talk about salts and salinity– salinity goes where the water goes, right ? If my crops are only using the water for four months out of the year, soil moisture for the rest of the year will not be brought up and used by plants from deeper in the soil profile. Our soil moisture will be closer to the surface and any precipitation we get will pool and evaporate, and that’s where our problem begins.”   As water collects and evaporates, capillary action brings water up from deeper in the soil. With that deep water comes dissolved salts. Water again evaporates off the surface, leaving salts behind, leading that piece of land into a cycle of growing salinity. When land starts to spiral into a saline seep, it usually begins in the most poorly drained areas on a field and farmers will notice a white coating across that top of the soil. Plants will begin to react: “It will start with poor germination, and they’ll start to exhibit the same characteristics as if they're going through drought because the available water is so full of salts that the plant can't use it. So when you have a very very salty soil environment, what happens? Well there are a lot of soil microbes that can’t live in it, you have plants that can’t grow in it, can't put down roots in it, so you're losing organic matter in your soil, soil microbes don't have available root exudates or carbon, so it becomes a dead and dying soil.”   A salinity issue is a water issue: water retention, water use, water infiltration.   A four-month corn-bean rotation doesn't use the water as it naturally was used in the land– not only across space but also across time. Minimal employment of water in the soils is not a passive action: it actively harms the land, the soil, and the plants.   “Salinity is, I think, the biggest threat to our agriculture in South Dakota, bigger than anything else because it takes away our ability to have an agricultural industry,” explained Hubers. “People think I'm yelling that the sky is falling– I tell them to go out on the land and you will see what I’m talking about.”   Reversing the Damage   The key to remedying salinity is generating and maintaining effective infiltration. Farmers need to change how they farm saline areas if they want that piece of land to remain viable at all– not addressing a saline area will only cause it to expand. Hubers encourages farmers to incorporate perennial grasses onto saline areas, even to allow weed encroachment on those areas, as long as they are kept covered.   “It comes down to water management, so make sure you have something growing as long as possible for the growing season. And if that means incorporating small grains into your rotation, incorporating cover crops, if it means inter-seeding rye as a cover crop, if it means tossing alfalfa in there because it’s got roots that can reach deep into your soil profile: Mother nature doesn't like bare soils, she always has something growing. We’re going to try to emulate that as much as possible in our cropping system by having diverse cover and reducing our tillage. It comes back to the principles of soil health.”   Tillage disrupts and destroys soil structure, decreasing pore space and soil’s ability to infiltrate water. This exacerbates saline seeps– tillage will only expand saline areas. Hubers advises farmers against farming through saline areas with conventional machinery– they are skirting the edge of much larger destruction than they may imagine.   “So there are solutions, but the solutions are tough to implement because 89% of crop ground in South Dakota is in a corn-bean rotation. And when you're so focused on just those two crops, then it makes it tough to increase your water usage not only on that field but also on the surrounding fields because everybody is doing the same thing,” said Hubers. “If you look up and down the Jim River and across the state, we’re looking at over 11 million acres that are impacted by salinity. And communities depend on that agricultural industry to stay alive. So 11 million acres with decreased or null production, that's going to have an impact.”   Farmer’s First Steps     If farmers begin to notice saline spots on their land, Hubers tells them to get their soil tested right away. First understanding exactly what the problem is– saline, sodic, or both– is imperative to understanding how to move forward.   “If you have a sodic problem then you're going to be really high in sodium which creates a whole batch of issues that with a pure saline issue you don't have. If it's a saline and sodic area, then to remediate that gets a lot harder,” Hubers explained. “So you've got to take soil samples, identify what your problem is. Like everything else, early diagnosis is critical.”   If you're a producer and you're looking to get help– technical, financial help– there's no better time than now. Organizations like Ducks Unlimited, of which Hubers is a part of, along with the NRCS, Pheasants Forever, and Every Acre Counts (to name a few) are offering support, incentive and insight to any farmers looking to shift their farming practices toward regenerative ethics.   “We work in conjunction, we don't work against each other, we’re all working with each other. Ducks Unlimited just received a $25 million Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) grant to do exactly what we’re talking about. To make sure that we increase the productivity on the land, on crop ground, provide options that the producers can utilize, and fix their problems. And we help them do that by providing technical assistance and economic assistance.”   With the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, if a farmer takes crop ground and puts it into grass, DU will pay farmers the average Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) round rate on those crop acres that are being put back to grass for a period of three years but it needs to stay in grass for a total of ten years and can be hayed or grazed after it is established.   “So we’re going to help you with that financial burden that you're going to incur. But at the end of the day, you're going to have good productive land that's still going to provide you an economic benefit versus a salt desert that's just going to cost you money, inputs, that you're never going to recover. Find someone that you want to work with, and they will help you. They will walk with you along that way. And it doesn't have to be on your whole farm. Let's identify those areas that are actually costing you money and are going to be worse if you don’t address them now. But you've got to be willing to identify the problem and realize that it's a problem. The way we farm now with our larger, bigger equipment– it's so easy to keep on going because we hate farming around stuff– it's a real pain, it messes up our rows, decreases our efficiency. But if you aren't willing to give up that 2/10ths of an acre, a 10th of an acre, whatever it may be, then pretty soon you're going to be farming around a much bigger area.”   Asks interviewer Joe Dickie– what if I’m somebody in Sioux Falls, and I'm not a farmer, I'm still listening to this podcast, and I hear that my tax dollars are going to farmers. What does that have to do with me?   Says Hubers: “We are so fortunate in South Dakota to be an agricultural state. We have less than a million people. We enjoy the opportunities that the agricultural landscape provides us– recreationally, aesthetically, environmentally. So what's in it for me– if I want to live in South Dakota, I'm going to be supporting agriculture and have a viable agricultural production system that's going to keep farmers on the land, that keeps ranchers on the land, because that's going to keep me in South Dakota and provide opportunities for not only me but the kids. We’ve got to make sure that as a society we have policies that allow our ag system to be strong, to be sustainable, to be regenerative, because what hurts the farmer eventually hurts all of us.” CLICK HERE to access the podcast where Buz Kloot and Joe Dickie discuss salinity with Matt please go to: ______________________________________________ ______________________ Visit these “Growing Resilience Through Our Soils” information pages: 1. Podcast page for drought planning fact sheets, Q&As, news, podcasts, and more. 2. 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