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. 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 Cassidy Spencer   Kent Cooley is a lifelong resident of South Dakota, with a diverse background spanning soil science, environmental management, and agronomy. He obtained his bachelor's degree in Soil Science and Environmental Management, followed by a master's degree in agronomy with a focus on soils, from South Dakota State University.   He started his career with the Soil Conservation Service, mapping soils in the Northeast of South Dakota. He continued mapping soils in various counties and is now the area resource soil scientist in Rapid City. Through his experience and familiarity with South Dakota soils, Cooley has witnessed the unfolding salinity crisis firsthand.   “ We actually tried to figure out how many acres of saline soils were in the state back in the mid-2000s. We calculated about seven and a half million acres of saline soils,” said Cooley. “We've added almost another million more acres of saline soils in the state the last 10 to 15 years, and that's primarily due to management.”     Understanding Salinity   Excessive soil salinity occurs through the accumulation of salts, primarily in the upper layers of the soil profile, including the root zone and up to the surface. In extreme cases, salts may evaporate as they move up the soil profile leaving a visible white crust on the soil surface, which is the final degradation state of saline soils.   Several factors contribute to this issue, the two bedrock conditions being salt-rich parent material and an arid or semi-arid environment. Under these conditions, water will tend to move upwards in the soils due to the arid climate and the lack of deep-rooted vegetation to infiltrate or pull water further down into the soil profile. Due to the history of the land, South Dakotan soil makeup can be more prone to saline issues.   “About a hundred million years to 66 million years ago, this area was underwater. There was a great inland sea that stretched from the Gulf of Mexico all the way up to the Arctic Ocean,” explained Cooley. “It divided North America into two landmasses. Well of course, that water was salty, it was an ocean. And when that inland sea retreated, those salts were left behind in the sediments. That’s the source of most of our salts: most of South Dakota was underwater, except for the far eastern part of the state.”     Managing Salinity   Addressing soil salinity requires a multifaceted approach, focusing on prevention, management, and remediation. Cooley emphasizes the importance of diverse crop rotations and the integration of multi-species plant roots to utilize moisture more effectively and keep salts at bay. A stratified root system, mimicking that of native rangelands, draws moisture from various soil depths, reducing the upward movement of salts.   Saline issues can be exacerbated by tillage, which disrupts the soil structure and minimizes pore space, encouraging upward movement of water in the soil through capillary action. No-till practices allow larger, granular “cottage cheese” soil structure to form in the soil, allowing for small, medium, and large pore spaces which subsequently allow gravity to take water deeper into the soil profile. Salt-rich parent material and arid environments, when combined with poor land management techniques, can lead to these saline seeps—excessive upward movement of salt-rich water and the eventual development of a white crust on the soil, alongside severely degraded soils without necessary structure to effectively utilize water.   “When you look at the soil forming processes, natural pore space is built within the soil and those pores connect the deeper parts of the soil profile up to the surface. Now, if we have an area where we don’t have a lot of vegetation or that vegetation is shallow rooted, that allows the soil moisture that’s in that soil profile to move upward through evapotranspiration and capillary rise, which is basically water movement up those pore spaces when we have a dry period,” explained Cooley. “But if we’re using the water through the plants, the transpiration aspect keeps those salts deeper in the soil profile. That’s the biggest thing when we’re looking at salinity on our soils, we want to eliminate the evaporation off the soil surface and lose our water through transpiration, through the plants. That helps keep the salts down lower in that soil profile.”   Another effective strategy in the fight against salinity is the adoption of perennial systems. Perennials, with their deep and extensive root systems, offer continuous soil cover and utilize soil moisture throughout the year. This consistent use of water helps to maintain the salts within the deeper layers of the soil, preventing their accumulation at the surface. Perennial systems not only mitigate salinity but also provide other environmental benefits, such as reducing erosion, enhancing biodiversity, and improving carbon sequestration.   “When we harvest crops in our tillage systems or cropping systems, and we have a period of probably two months, up to four months, depending on whether it’s a small grain or a row crop, where we’re not utilizing soil moisture at all—that can actually build water tables that could potentially cause problems down the road,” explained Cooley.       Managing the Recharge Area   A critical aspect of salinity management is focusing on the recharge area, the upslope region that contributes to the water and salt flow towards the affected areas. Effective management of this zone can significantly reduce the volume of water moving downslope, thereby preventing the accumulation of salts in the lower lying areas.   “What actually starts becoming saline is downslope from those areas, either in a saline seep, which is typically on a side slope, or lower parts of the side slope, which actually can move up the slope if you don’t take care of the problem,” said Cooley. “We want to utilize that soil moisture in the uplands before it can ever get down to those lower areas if it’s moving laterally in that soil profile. You utilize it up there, then you’re way better off. And when you look at those saline areas across the state, it doesn’t matter if it’s a seep or if it’s a low-lying area where we’re starting to build salts on the soil surface—those are much smaller areas as compared to the recharge area.”   Cooley again praises the implementation of multi-species root systems being kept in soil year-round to begin to mitigate this issue.    “ Once again, probably the most effective way to manage salt affected areas that I know is to put perennial systems in place in the uplands and the recharge area, while adding more salt tolerant species,” said Cooley. “ When you look at trying to remediate the actual salt area, I've heard a lot of people want to use tile drainage, an interceptor drain to cut off the water with interceptor tile. But then you have the problem of where are you going to route that tiled drainage system, where's that salty water going to go? Is it going to stay on your place? Is it going to affect a neighbor and so forth on downstream? That's not a good scenario.”     Salinity and Sodicity   Salinity issues in soil are not to be confused with sodicity issues. As Cooley explains, the two issues are dealing with entirely different soil chemistry—salinity refer to an excess in calcium and magnesium salts in the soil profile. Sodicity refers to high sodium content in soils, which cause clay particles within the soil profile to disperse, developing a claypan. The claypan—a compact, dense layer of clay formed in the subsoil—is highly restrictive to root development and more difficult to remediate than saline seeps.   “When we're dealing with more of a sodic soil which can have an appearance of being saline, that soil test alone will actually tell us if there is a high sodium content in that soil, especially the upper part of that soil profile,” explained Cooley. “When that occurs, basically we're looking at either a sodium absorption ratio of 15 or greater, or an exchangeable sodium percentage of 13 or greater.”   It is much easier to alleviate a salinity problem than a sodicity problem. Once you have a sodic soil that has formed a claypan, necessary pore space in soil has been restricted and water cannot effectively travel or absorb in the soils.     Staying Aware of Irrigation   Cooley added, it is important to stay aware of the quality of water being utilized for irrigation, as well as the irrigation system and its compatibility with your soil makeup. If irrigation water is high in salts or sodium, there is the potential to imbalance chemical makeup of soils and encourage salinity or sodicity issues down the line. Closer to river systems, soils typically have higher sand and gravel content which helps to keep soil water moving down the soil profile. Further from river systems, farmers need be aware of the quality of water they are implementing through irrigation, as their soils with higher clay content are more prone to skewing toward excessive salinity and sodicity.   “In our irrigation guide, those heavy clay soils have a very low water intake and very low water movement through that soil profile because of the small pore space. And we are not supposed to move from a flood irrigation system to a sprinkler irrigation system on those soils. But we've been playing around with trying to implement appropriate management systems that will still allow us to convert to a sprinkler and avoid some of those salinity or sodicity problems by maintaining pore space and putting extra water in; especially in the last irrigation period during the year, we try to flush salts out or down that soil profile and keep them lower in the soil profile,” said Cooley. “Well, we had one producer that did not take our advice. He continued to grow continuous corn with tillage. And within a period of less than two years, he actually got to the point where he could not raise a corn crop because the soils were becoming so saline based on his management. So that's the situation that we're trying to avoid when we put sprinkler irrigation systems on these clay soils. We need a perennial system, or we need to try to keep salts pushed down by using a no-till system if annually cropped.”   ______________________________________________ ______________________ 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

Maygen & The Birdwatcher   By Cassidy Spencer   Early in June of 2023, Lynn Betts was doing consulting with the South Dakota Grassland Coalition, developing a public service campaign through the USDA to highlight North America’s native grasslands. Videographer Joe Dickie had crisscrossed the grasslands for years already, collecting footage of the country’s authentic ranching livelihood and the grasslands’ expansive, multifaceted beauty. With all this footage, and an aim to bring attention to the wonder of the grasslands– Betts decided to start seeking the right artist to write a song encapsulating the mission to save the grasslands, to bring the message and the footage together into one piece of art.   Joe Dickie was skeptical. So often music about the landscape, about nature, can ‘dip into cheesy territory, into jingle territory’. Joe didn't want a jingle for the grasslands. He wanted a piece of art that could reflect what he found so stunning and so imperative, after studying this landscape for so many years.   Lynn Betts set out to listen through all the Midwest music acts and groups he could find.    “I believe it was Lynn, who wound up in my inbox, saying that he had listened to all the different Midwest artists trying to find the right voice or the right style for this campaign. That they were looking for music to be written, and would we be interested in writing about the wonder of the grasslands?” says Maygen of Maygen & The Birdwatcher. “And he found the right people, because we sure were up for it. We had just been touring earlier that year through the grasslands and admiring the beauty of everything, so that imagery was fresh for us.”   Maygen & The Birdwatcher is a band led by Maygen Lacey and fellow singer/songwriter Noah Neumann. The band began as a duo between the two in 2017, and they have slowly been building their group, their voice and their repertoire since then.   “Over the past few years, we’ve just been getting our music out to as many places as possible and it's been fun to see kind of where it turns up and who hears it– including Lynn,” says Maygen.   Maygen Lacey grew up listening to 90’s country music that her mom was a fan of. She knew she loved music, and sang in high school, but had extreme stage fright following high school, so she did not perform at all. It wasn’t until after she had kids that Maygen realized that if she didn’t start to face her dream and fear of performing, she never would. She began as a studio vocalist and co-leading her first band, a female-fronted duo called Sparrow’s Rising.    At one of their gigs, Maygen met a guitarist, Noah Neumann. She saw his talent and wanted to expand the band and invited Noah to join as a musician. They soon branched off from there as they realized they both had similar songwriting goals that took them away from the genre they were currently in.   Neumann did not grow up listening to country music– he was raised in a small town north of the Twin Cities and played the contrarian, pushing against country music for a lot of his youth, listening to classic rock and playing in metal bands. Eventually a family friend brought country music back into Noah’s life as an adult and something clicked.    “I started to see it from a different perspective. So, I was bopping around through different projects, and I started to feel like I wanted to have a bit more artistic influence on a project's artistic identity. And I didn’t want to do it alone. And I met Maygen, and the rest is history,” says Neumann.   Their collaboration has only blossomed since then.    “When we started with our first EP, he was only playing guitar and I was writing the lyrics. But over the years our voices have kind of grown together. He started writing for our debut full-length album Moonshine and he is an amazing writer and fantastic melody guy. And has a lovely voice. And all these talents came out of the woodwork through this project,” says Maygen.   “-And Maygen used to not play any guitar and now she does,” adds Noah.   Where Good Things Grow A piece of the perfection regarding Maygen & The Birdwatcher as the choice for this project, is that the band had toured through Montana, through the grasslands, through the Midwest and agricultural landscapes. Fresh on their mind was the beauty and the wonder of this landscape, and the importance of calling attention to it. “It’s easy to not notice it, but agriculture is everywhere. Like Montana, we played a festival, and the festival was just surrounded by farmland. Or we went down to Palisade, CO, which is on the western slope of the Rockies, which is a peach town. They farm peaches. That’s what they're all about. You would never know. And it's one of our favorite places we’ve ever been. So, agriculture is everywhere. The livelihood of it, the history, and the families who do this,” says Noah.   In the lyrics for the song, Noah and Maygen wanted to capture and honor the history of the families who have tended this land so long and how much the land means to them; their livelihood, their community. The song begins with the line “Oh, the wonder” to call the audience’s attention to nature’s amazing capacity for care and regeneration and to not take it for granted– as these farming families have not taken it for granted for all these generations.   “For me a lot of the writing was kind of about how interconnected everything is and how important it is to keep it that way– you need the birds, you need the buffalo, you need all that stuff for the soil to get to do what the soil needs to do to keep life moving along the way that it should the way that it's meant to be,” says Maygen.   Once the song was written Joe, Maygen and Noah went into the Lac Qui Parle grasslands in Southwest Minnesota to film video of the two playing and singing the song. The resulting video footage of Maygen singing and Noah strumming the guitar in the radiant warm late-day light over the prairie, spliced into footage of grassland livelihood that Joe had been collecting for years. This music video went on to win Maygen & The Birdwatcher ‘Music Video of the Year’ at the Midwest Country Music Organization Awards, where they also won ‘Entertainer of the Year’. Maygen & The Birdwatcher In the future, the band aims to release another full album in the upcoming year. Earlier this year they completed a successful Kickstarter to fund their future projects, and recently released their songs ‘Jericho’ and ‘Right Where You Belong’ to streaming platforms, meant as the first of much new music to come from the rising group. In the meantime, their most recent collection is the forthcoming ‘Leap Year’ EP, due out August 2nd.   “Basically we have plans for the next many years, so many songs and so much we’re trying to do. So we’re like, ‘here's this EP,’ while we’re also trying to make the next full-length piece this fall or winter,” says Maygen.   Watch the full video for ‘Where Good Things Grow” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FklZNJWNxcY     To find out more about Maygen and Noah, go to: https://www.maygenandthebirdwatcher.com/ or follow them on Facebook or Instagram. @maygenandthebirdwatcher   To listen to the full interview CLICK 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

Lee Briese   By Cassidy Spencer   Dr. Lee Briese is an independent crop consultant in East Central North Dakota, working directly with farmers. He conducts field checks, crop checks and recommendations, and generally refers to himself as a ‘plant doctor,’ “both literally and figuratively. I go out and do the checkups on the field and give the farmer a report and if we need to do anything I make prescriptions for that.”    With a master’s degree in soil science, a doctorate in plant health, and 25 years of this work under his belt, he claims that salinity is one of the standout agricultural issues in the region.    “I would say close to 80-90% of my fields have some salinity affected acres in them.”   Saline Causes   Dr. Briese has witnessed change in cropping systems in North Dakota over the last 25 years and has watched as less saline-tolerant crops have been increasingly employed. In his area he used to see wheat, barley and sunflower as primary crops, all three being quite saline-tolerant. The major crops he’s witnessing in his area now are corn and soybeans, and a fair amount of dry bean, which he distinguishes as some of the weakest crops against salinity. The James River Valley is a semi-arid region, so it receives just enough water to fill up the soils, lakes and rivers and build up high water tables– but the region still witnesses high levels of evaporation.   “These salts as we call them are actually nutrients– they’re calcium, magnesium, sulfates, chlorides – those types of things are the salts we’re talking about with salinity. These are plant nutrients that are naturally in our soils. What happens is when rain falls, these salts dissolve in the water, and if the water moves downhill or through the ecosystem to the edges, or from these wet spots, it'll capillary rise from the outside. So basically it's evaporating. So very much like taking a pot of water and boiling it on the stove till it's done- there will be a salt ring at the bottom, it'll precipitate out. This is what's happening- we have a net movement of water upwards.”   Alongside this shift in crop choice, the region is in a wet cycle. When the region experiences excess moisture above trend histories and simultaneously farmers start using some of the more sensitive crops in a tight rotation, the problem is quickly exaggerated.   “It's an issue of if the plant can get any usable water. It's the same reason they tell you not to drink seawater– it draws moisture out of you. Because there's salts dissolved in the water, the plants have a harder time with getting that water into their system. Now, because it tends to happen fairly slowly, there's a little bit of a tolerance that builds up, kind of like alcohol in humans,” says Briese. “So if the plant has managed to germinate and grow and get started, then it can build up some tolerance to this salinity over time, and if we get a wet spring or a moist season, it actually dilutes the salts, makes it a little more palatable, the plant gets going, and then as things dry out, the plant has a little bit of tolerance, maybe it doesn't die immediately, but it's always stressed. And that stress affects their yield drastically," explains Briese.   “So something I’ll see is that some of my farmers will do something, and then they'll have a better year, and they'll assume that what they did made that year better. And that's one of the first things that I find is a myth. One of the myths is that tillage will make this better. And tillage does not make this better. We’ve been doing tillage for over 200 years– we wouldn't have this salinity issue if that was the solution. What happens is they'll do a spring tillage, they'll do a planting, and then they'll get good moisture and good rain, that rain will dilute the salinity and that crop will grow better than it did the year before, and so it looks like what they did made a difference. But it did not.”   In the area there is a trend also of heightened salinity issues along roadways. Briese explains that the roads in the James River Valley were built in a fairly dry period in the region’s existence, with a few water crossings and culverts but insufficient ditches and drain ways.    “So, then we enter the last 20 years or so, we start getting significant amounts of rain, a lot more water, and the insufficient road drainage has been blocking it and storing it. So the water sits, leeches into the soil, and evaporates from the surrounding areas. It doesn't really evaporate from the road surfaces, but from further out into the field, especially when there's mechanical tillage or any type of work going on or less plant growth in those areas, there's a higher level of evaporation in the field. So we have water seeping into the soil from the road ditches, traveling out into the field and evaporating off the surface. And during that time it's bringing all of those soil salts out to the fields.” Lee Briese Lean Acres   Briese is a proponent of employing a long-term management strategy when confronting saline acres. He’s watched many farmers plow right along with their old techniques, hoping for change in those acres– planting the same annual crops, applying the same inputs, driving their planter through affected areas as if all the soil had uniform needs. Ultimately, Briese wants to communicate that if these acres are consistently worsening, new tactics are called for. For the sake of the land and the soil, but for the sake of business, as well.   “Everything's gotta pull its own weight in any business. What's happening in these areas is that the inputs haven't changed. They're still the seed input, the fertilizer input, the equipment passing over that input; but it's very much like having a hired person on your farm that just doesn't show up to work. So these unproductive areas- they're basically getting paid and they're not returning any yield. I ask farmers how long would it take you to fire somebody that never shows up for work? Doesn't take very long, at max what I've heard has been like a week.”   Yes, you obviously can’t simply ‘fire’ land off your property and ship in a new tract. But you can stop paying it for work it isn’t doing and isn't equipped to do.   “So say your sister calls and says your nephew either learns how to work, or he’s going to end up in juvenile hall. So here's this teenager that she’s going to send to your farm. One of the first questions I ask farmers– do we put him in the planter? Gosh no! There's no way he’d get near that really expensive, important piece of equipment! So what jobs are you going to give this nephew? Picking rocks, driving the wheelbarrow, maybe mowing the lawn– this is the thought process. This unproductive acre doesn't have zero value if you give it different jobs that are appropriate. Fire these saline acres from corn production, soybean production, potentially even wheat and sunflowers if they're bad enough, and give them something else to do. Because otherwise they're going to become full of weeds and pests and that's your juvie hall. So give them something to do. That's where the perennials fit in. That's where the cover crops fit in. As alternative jobs.”   Briese points out that yields go up when farmers stop spending money on zero-acre yields. Though it is an investment to plant and care for young perennials and commit to losing out on possible crops, input costs are cut– “Just take your inputs from $250, $350, whatever it is per acre, and you invest 100 dollars in those acres, and you just paid yourself $200 not to do anything.”   When running a planter through cropland, Briese advises his farmers to lift it up over saline areas, stop disturbing them, and stop applying fertilizer.   “If you've been fertilizing these spots for 6,7,8 years, and haven't gotten a crop on it, your fertilizer’s built up, plus the water’s moving more fertility. I have all kinds of soil tests showing 8-10 times more fertility in those areas than the rest of the field. Ridiculously high amounts and almost even toxic amounts in some situations.”   Planting perennials can help farmers to not get their planters stuck in a saline area. It depends on the year, the weather, but good established native perennials can be quite saline tolerant, especially the switchgrass and wheatgrasses– Briese says the trick is getting them established. All plants, when young, are more susceptible to being impacted by salinity.   “The entire region of the upper great plains that's gone into annual cropping is not using as much water as it used to. So even though corn uses a lot of water, it only really grows for 90-120 days, and in those first 30 days we’re talking about very small plants that really aren't doing a whole lot. So we’re really talking about 60-90 days of water usage. If you have an established perennial, you're getting 200-220-250 days of water use. So that’s more than double, and almost triple, what we can do with corn. A perennial system can also respond to times of high water especially in early spring and late fall, which are two points in time when your corn plant is not doing anything– it's not planted in the spring and it's dead in the fall. So healing this imbalance is largely about water utilization.”   Briese says that after 5-10 years of diluting that saline imbalance and managing that water usage, farmers could maybe transition to a perennial-annual system, employing 2-3 years of annuals.    “So if you look at your cropping system as 5 -7 years of perennials and 1-3 years of annuals, then you could probably do the best of both. But you need to make a change before the salinity gets to the point where nothing will grow. Because again establishing that small crop is the challenge. So I really encourage farmers, if they really want to bring this back to annual crop production– to think about it in a 10-year crop cycle.”   Listen to the full interview at https://www.growingresiliencesd.com/podcasts/episode/259b1fbd/63-crop-consultant-shares-how-to-earn-400-more-dollars-an-acre-on-saline-soils ______________________________________________ ______________________ 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

Fred Provenza By Buz Kloot   On Monday the 15th of July this year (2024), Joe Dickie and I got to talk to Dr. Fred Provenza (Professor Emeritus, Dept. Wildland Resources, Utah State University) from his home in Ennis, Montana as part of our podcast series.  Getting to know Fred in the last two months has been a journey in and of itself and I thought I’d share a few insights with you and hopefully this whets your appetite for when we release the podcast. While I don’t consider myself a prodigious reader, I did find that two books this year profoundly affected the way I viewed the world. The first was I saw Satan Fall like Lightning by René Girard, and the other was Nourishment by Fred Provenza. This is the story of how I first got to read Provenza’s amazing book. For the longest time, I would often hear my friend Michael Hall, formerly an NRCS grazing specialist, say “Fred Provenza said….”  As a guy who was coming to grips with soil health in row crop land, I never bothered to find out who Fred Provenza was.  After I fell in love with the prairie and started to see livestock as one of the answers to restoring degraded land, names outside of my South Dakota contacts like Allan Savory, Stan Parsons, Dallas Mount, Terry McCosker and Fred Provenza started to attract my attention. Since I was only one degree of separation from Provenza, I took a chance and asked Michael if he’d provide a letter of introduction to Fred so we could ask for a podcast interview.  Mike graciously, and eventually did this, sending an email to Fred and copying me in.  Well, Fred’s celebrity to me was on par with Tom Brady or Eric Clapton, so my expectation of a response was low.  But to my great surprise, Fred responded the next day “… Buz, wonderful to meet you. Michael told me many wonderful stories about you. I’m happy to do a podcast with you. I am happy to talk about whatever you consider to be most appropriate for your audience.”  Well, don’t you know, I was both shocked and delighted. This was a couple of months ago in late May, and I thought “hoo boy, better be prepared for this podcast, I don’t want to blow it with the behavioral ecology guru!” To prepare, I ordered his book Nourishment and borrowed the audiobook of the same title from the library – I listened to the audiobook (an abridged version of the book itself) and devoured the book as well.  I expected to find a tome about grazing and shepherding livestock, and I got that in spades, but in such an engaging way – Fred loves stories!  What I didn’t expect was the application of so much of what he learned from foraging behavior and how he applied that to ecology, sociology, human health and even metaphysical musings.  I was amazed at the way Fred weaves such a wonderful story that links humankind’s relationship to soil, water, plants and animals to the spiritual world. It truly just blew my mind. As I read through Nourishment and listened to the audiobook, Fred and I struck up a running email conversation. Once again, I didn’t think a rock star like Fred would have the time to converse with me, but he did.  Next week, I’d like to share a little more about our correspondence that led up to the podcast interview. In the meantime, I’d like to share some links that I explored and that I’d highly recommend: Utah State University: The Web of Life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjUgX91VZpk Grassfed Exchange 2022 'Fred Provenza: Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom'    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKOVsimD5HI 2023 Soil Revolution Conference: Managing Landscapes for Health: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAktpQwf3sY Regenerative Agriculture Podcast: Regenerating Landscapes With Livestock and Diverse Forages: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c7JFx7WyWA Books: Nourishment by Fred Provenza The Art & Science of Shepherding - by Michel Meuret (Editor), Fred Provenza (Editor) ______________________________________________ ______________________ 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

Photo Credit: Joe Dickie By: Buz Kloot Is the art and science of shepherding a lost practice, or can we still learn from it today? In our SoilHealthLabs podcast series, Joe Dickie and I sat down with Dr. Fred Provenza to explore this question in the episode “Tap into the Hidden Wisdom of Livestock to Restore Your Land”. We dive into the skills of shepherds who not only guide their animals but also learn from them, using their knowledge to create a healthy balance between animals and the land. Joe starts by pointing out the difference between a herder and a shepherd. A herder simply directs where animals go, but a shepherd observes and lets the animals choose the plants they need. This method, Fred explains, benefits both the land and the animals. It’s about more than just livestock—it’s about keeping the landscape diverse, which is good for the soil and the plants that the livestock and wildlife depend on. Fred talks about his experiences with French shepherds through his work with Michel Meuret, a French ecologist, animal behaviorist, and nutritionist. These shepherds think about the order in which animals graze, not just what they graze. For example, a shepherd might have the animals eat protein-rich plants first, then move them to graze on tannin-rich oak or birch. This way, the animals use the whole landscape without overgrazing the best spots. Fred explains that shepherds and their flocks learn from each other. “The shepherds are learning from the animals, and then they’re using that learning to work with the animals,” he says. This approach is all about observation and trying things out, much like how farmers and ranchers traditionally learn from the land instead of just from books. It’s a blend of hands-on experience and practical know-how. We also touch on the bigger picture—how modern practices have disconnected us from our food sources. Fred shares how he was invited to speak at the 2024 Old Salt Festival in Montana, a state full of cattle, yet much of the beef consumed there is imported. This disconnect, Fred argues, weakens our community ties and our connection to the land. As we wrap up, Fred highlights the importance of rebuilding these connections. The lessons from shepherds—who learn directly from their animals and the land—can guide us in improving our food systems. This episode encourages us to think about where our food comes from and to value practical knowledge in keeping our ecosystems healthy. Stay tuned for more with Fred in the upcoming episode! Dr. Fred Provenza is professor emeritus of Behavioral Ecology at the Department of Wildland Resources, Utah State University. Fred is also the author of three books, including Nourishment: What Animals Can Teach Us about Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom; Foraging Behavior: Managing to Survive in a World of Change; and The Art & Science of Shepherding: Tapping the Wisdom of French Herders - a book he co-authored with ecologist, animal behaviorist, and nutritionist Michel Meuret. In the case that Dr. Provenza may have escaped your attention, we recommend the link below which is a really informative talk given by Dr. Provenza at Utah State University: The Web of Life Event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjUgX91VZpk ______________________________________________ ______________________ 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 This summer (2024), as I began editing video footage from June 2023 (yes, I’m a bit behind), I realized I had my work cut out for me. We conducted interviews with several experts: Scott and Jeff Hamilton (of Hamilton Seed Mix fame), SDSU’s Anthony Bly, NRCS’s Kent Vlieger, Ducks Unlimited’s Bruce Toay and Matt Hubers, and the inimitable Frannie Fritz. The subject was salinity. If you’re driving east River (a very South Dakotan term for those outside the state), you don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to see how rising water levels and salinity have impacted farmlands and infrastructure. Large patches of white in croplands during summer or expansive puddles in wet weather are easy to spot. Roads and fences dip into prairie potholes, and it’s not uncommon to see water levels encroaching on old houses and barns. As I sat down to tackle the stories from these experts, I wondered how I would weave them into a coherent narrative. Finding the Story By mid-summer, I discovered a strong story from the interviews with the Hamiltons and Anthony Bly—they seemed to be responding to each other, even though we interviewed them separately. I thought, “Let’s finish this story by the end of August so we can move on to the Kent Vlieger, Cain Creek project, and the new Beadle County project, where we met with Ducks and Frannie Fritz.” Life’s Challenges Well, it’s October 1st as I write this. The Hamilton-Bly story had to be set aside—call it fate, divine providence, or whatever you like. After navigating a family crisis in Africa, dealing with a computer failure and replacement, hosting my daughter and my energetic grandson, and weathering a hurricane, I’m only now starting to tackle the Hamilton-Bly story. I’m not pleased that it has taken me this long, and I’m still not finished, but stepping away has helped me focus on the key points. Hopefully, the resulting video—though delayed—will be more informative and, dare I say, entertaining. Understanding Salinity Over the past year, I’ve begun to understand salinity better through these videos and several podcasts (see list of podcasts below). I’ve also come to appreciate that salinity and its spread are complex. The remedies are intricate as well, but not impossible. Life—filled with family emergencies, visits, and equipment breakdowns—often gets in the way. As a result, addressing those growing saline areas may have to take a back seat, at least for another growing season. The spread of salinity, especially in the Jim River Valley, can be classified as consequential but not urgent. Like my video project, it can be set aside as we navigate life’s unpredictable challenges. Looking Ahead to the Fall: A Time for Reflection and Preparing for Action It seems that Providence has delayed our series on salinity until fall, “when the shadows lengthen and the winter comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of the growing season is over, and our work for the season is done” (with apologies to Cardinal Newman). This fall, if salinity impacts you, I encourage you to take the time to educate yourself on this important issue. I’ll do my best to release the first video before December, and we also have podcasts and written resources available. Your partners in South Dakota—NRCS, Ducks Unlimited, Pheasants Forever, and Every Acre Counts—are eager to assist you in this journey. To borrow from the tree-planting folks: The best time to address salinity was 20 years ago; the second best time is today. Let’s take action together—strength in unity! Useful Links: Stay tuned to our newsletter for our first feature film on salinity featuring the Hamilton’s Anthony Bly Feature Story by Kurt Lawton: Soil Salinity Management in SD Stockgrowers’s Summer 2024 Magazine Blogs: Conquering Salinity: Matt Hubers' Strategies for Sustainable Agriculture in South Dakota Confronting Soil Salinity: Kent Cooley's Strategies for Sustainable Agriculture Managing Soil Salinity : Dr. Lee Briese's Expert Tips for Sustainable Crop Production Podcasts: 59 Soil Expert on the Origins and Impacts of Saline Soils – a talk with NRVS’s Kent Cooley 61 Agronomist Shares Top Strategies to Transform Saline Soils into Productive Land – a talk with Ducks Unilmited’s Matt Hubers 63 Crop Consultant Shares How to Earn 400 More Dollars an Acre on Saline Soils – a talk with Crop Consultant. Lee Briese ______________________________________________ ______________________ 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

My buddy, Mike Hall, as cowboy as a southern gentleman can be (and I mean   gentle man), sent me a wonderful Christmas card by Jack Sorenson, an artist whose work I wasn't familiar with. I looked Sorensenn up online (linked here) and found his delightful story—he's still making art today!   For my cowboy friends out West River, you're probably thinking, "Kloot, what rock have you been living under these past few years? Haven't you learned anything?" I know; I'm a city boy who fell in love with agriculture at 50. I rose to the role of messenger boy for soil health and regenerative agriculture, a role which, by the way, I cherish.   What struck me about the card Mike sent was how poignant it was, and it reminded me of the reading we had from the Gospel of Luke over Christmas. The passage didn't emphasize kings or wise men, but humble shepherds—those on society's lowest, most despised rung. To these shepherds was revealed the message of the incarnation: hope, freedom, and justice.   The Santa in the picture, kneeling by a fire with his patient horse in the background and his bag of toys nearby, reminded me of those shepherds. There are no flashy red suits, reindeer, or hordes of adoring elves serving hot cocoa while Santa stays warm under a large comforter. No, this is a solitary man, enjoying a cup of coffee (or cocoa?) he made himself. He's on one knee, about to break camp, with children on his mind. I don't see a Santa keeping a "naughty or nice" list here. He's bringing gifts to all children.   This image brought me to thoughts on soil, crops, and rangeland health. I think Mother Nature doesn't keep a naughty or nice list. She teaches her lessons, some of which are hard, but she gives the gifts of sunlight (carbon), water, nitrogen, sulfur, and all the minerals waiting to be released from the soil. Sometimes, we refuse her gifts, but she patiently waits for us to see what she has to offer.   My friend Dan Rasmussen, who talks about changing ranch culture, shows a graph that moves from continuous grazing on the left to high-frequency rotational grazing on the right. This continuum is a line graph with no "naughty or nice" categories and no underlying judgment. People are  where they are.   One of the things I've learned about the soil health community (think SD Soil Health Coalition, SD Grassland Coalition, Ducks Unlimited, NRCS, Every Acre Counts, SD Cattlemen, and the list goes on) is that it's made up of people who will meet you where you are. Their motivation stems from a passion for agriculture and a love for people—a willingness to help families and communities thrive and to accept Mother Nature's gifts.   Which brings me back to Luke's Gospel and the Cowboy. Our internet age has had its blessings and curses, but one blessing is that we've democratized the idea of soil health and regenerative agriculture. It's no longer a secret kept by a few—it's available to all, even those of us who see ourselves as lowly shepherds at the lower ends of society.   So, as we reflect on this Christmas and look forward to the new year, I encourage you to keep Jack Sorenson's image in mind as a reminder: the community has passionate people who will meet you where you are (indeed, who have been where you are), no judgment required, no “naughty” labels. And if you allow them, they can show you how to participate in Mother Nature's gifts of abundance.  Here's wishing you a wonderful New Year! _____________________________________________ _______________________ 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