Natalie Sturm By the Growing Resilience Team For decades, no-till has been hailed as a cornerstone of regenerative agriculture—an essential practice to protect soil while still producing food, feed, fuel, and fiber. However, a groundbreaking thesis by soil scientist Natalie Sturm, conducted at the Dakota Lakes Research Farm in central South Dakota, shows that no-till is only part of the equation. It’s not just about reducing disturbance. It’s about what you grow—and how you grow it. Natalie’s study examined nearly 30 years of data (1991–2021) across both irrigated and dryland cropping systems, all under long-term no-till. Her findings are clear: how you design your crop rotation—particularly how much residue you return to the soil and how diverse your system is—has an impact on soil health and grain yields. Key Finding #1: Residue and Diversity Are Game Changers for Soil Health Even under the same no-till management, rotations that included a greater proportion of crops with high carbon-to-nitrogen ratio residues (like corn, sorghum, and winter wheat) and greater diversity  (a mix of grasses, broadleaf crops, and cool/warm seasons) showed: Higher soil organic matter (SOM) , Better soil structure , measured by mean aggregate size, Stronger fungal communities and higher microbial diversity , Lower surface runoff and better infiltration . For example, the corn-corn-soy-winter wheat/cover-soy  rotation (C-C-S-W-S)—which included about 60% high-carbon crops and high diversity—produced better soil fungal populations and greater aggregate size than simpler systems like corn-soy  (C-S), which had only 50%  high-carbon crops and low diversity. Key Finding #2: You Don’t Have to Sacrifice Yield Some worry that adding more crops—or stepping away from simplified rotations—will reduce grain yields. But at Dakota Lakes, the opposite proved true. The first-year irrigated corn in C-C-S-W-S  averaged 212.2 bu/ac , outperforming both the corn-soy rotation (198.2 bu/ac) and continuous corn (183.5 bu/ac). It should be noted that second-year corn however, yielded 191.4 bu/ac. In dryland systems, wheat-corn-broadleaf and wheat-wheat-sorghum-corn-broadleaf  maintained or slightly improved wheat yields compared to a rotation with a broadleaf crop every other year while also building better soil—especially at deeper layers. Rotations with higher proportions of high-carbon crops consistently showed more yield stability over time , even in tougher years. In fact, the simpler corn-soy system only outperformed C-C-S-W-S in 4 of the 17 years  studied. Key Finding #3: Soil Health Is More Than Just Going No-Till Natalie’s work also revealed that diversity alone isn’t enough  if it doesn’t come with residue. High diversity with low biomass can leave soils biologically rich but chemically and physically degraded. Conversely, continuous corn , with 100% residue, built SOC but lacked the biological diversity needed for yield gains. The sweet spot? Rotations that balance diversity and residue —typically with 60–80% high-carbon crops and 2 or more functional crop types . Why This Matters Too often, no-till is promoted as a one-size-fits-all solution. However, as Natalie’s thesis demonstrates, no-till without thoughtful crop rotation is like building a house without a foundation . It helps, but it doesn’t finish the job. To truly regenerate soil, support yields, and prepare for weather fluctuations, crop rotation must be front and center in soil health conversations. Natalie’s full thesis, “It’s Not Just No-Till: Crop Rotations Are Key to Improving Soil Quality and Grain Yields at Dakota Lakes Research Farm,” is now available [ here ] Natalie’s video on this subject is at this link: https://dakotalakes.com/its-not-just-no-till-with-natalie-sturm/ Dakota Lakes 2020 Field Day is also an excellent Resource.  The full playlist (20 videos) can be found [ 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

By Buz Kloot An old friend of mine grew up in Utah’s Cache Valley, where his dad, a worn-out dairyman, would shake his head after a long day and mutter, “I sure hope there ain’t no cows in heaven.” But I’m not so sure anymore—especially after visiting Cody Merrigan, a young farmer just a stone’s throw from the University of South Dakota’s Vermillion campus. Cody runs a mixed operation of row crops, cover crops, and stocker cattle in Clay County, where most folks stick to corn and soybeans and leave the livestock to someone else. “Other than Mr. Nissen,” he said, “no one else around here does what we do. It’s like living in a bubble.” On this “island,” Cody is doing something different: blending no-till, cover crops, and stocker cattle  in a way that doesn’t just cut inputs—it regenerates the land.  A Journey Sparked by a YouTube Video Cody didn’t start out with no-till or grazing covers. “I grew up conventional,” he says. But a soils teacher planted a seed, and a David Brandt video  on cover crops lit the spark. “It looked fun. Simple. So I gave it a shot. Planted some wheat and a cover crop. Total failure—no moisture. But I was hooked.” That curiosity led him to the Ranching for Profit school  and the South Dakota Grazing School . “Every year I’ve gotten better at grazing—on native range, cover crops, everything,” he says. “But it really started with one video.” A System That Regenerates, Rotates, and Flexes Cody's system is built on keeping living roots in the soil year-round and grazing strategically. Here’s how it works: “Full year, whether it’s corn or soy—it doesn’t matter what it is—it’s getting a cover crop of some kind in the fall.” In spring, as those covers green up, he grazes them for 45–90 days, then sends the cattle to native range while he plants a full-season warm-season cover crop  (like sorghum-sudan or millet). That full-season cover is then grazed in summer, followed by a cool-season mix in the fall . “I come right back around again in September and put it into a cool-season mix. My goal is to have something growing on the land year-round.” Originally, he followed a corn-soy-wheat rotation, but struggled to grow anything in August. “Trying to grow something in August in Southeast South Dakota was a terrible time. So I shifted to planting in June—when we usually have more moisture.” Why Stockers? Why Now? Cody’s move from cow-calf to stockers was all about flexibility. With grazing windows shifting and drought always a possibility, stockers let him adapt on the fly. “If we start to go dry, I can sell them. I can match my stocking rate to the forage I have. Cow-calf guys don’t have that option in June and July.” He admits stockers come with their own challenges—training and health being top among them—but he enjoys the work. And then there’s Kevin , the unexpected leader steer: “Kevin has made it awesome. I’ll put him with a new group and he knows when I show up—hey, we’re going somewhere new. I follow him, and they follow me. Sometimes he goes the wrong way, but most of the time he’s a huge asset.” The Most Important Priority What struck us most wasn’t the soil or the yields—it was the time . Cody has restructured his entire system around what matters most: his wife and three daughters. “I have an order of priorities: family is number one, work is number two. I can’t say five years ago that’s how I operated.” Every decision—from adopting no-till to running stockers—is shaped by that mindset. “Give me 45 minutes to move cattle, check fence and water,” he said, “and you’ve got me for the rest of the day.” If his wife and daughters want to go camping, he just gives the cattle a bigger paddock. The system bends with life, not the other way around. Cody Merrigan’s farm may be an island in Clay County, but it’s no silo. His story is part of a broader movement we’re hearing again and again—farmers designing systems that fit their lives, regenerate their land, and still leave room for dinner with the family. It’s hard work. It’s not perfect. But it might just be a little heaven-sent. ______________________________________________ ______________________ 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 past Friday morning, I was sitting in my local coffee shop, enjoying a cup of joe and catching up on the latest Our Amazing Grasslands  video from the South Dakota Grassland Coalition. As I watched, I saw a few familiar faces pop up on the screen—SDSU’s Pete Bauman, that larger-than-life dynamo (seriously, where does he get his energy?); Josh Lefers, the rancher-philosopher who also happens to be Audubon Dakota’s Director of Conservation; Mike McKernan, a boots-on-the-ground East River rancher; and a new voice to me—SDSU’s Madison Kovarna, a beef nutrition specialist with a fresh and practical perspective. Now, the message in this video isn’t necessarily new. But it still managed to blow my mind. This group has been collecting data on nutrients and minerals in native grasses and forbs, alongside the usual cool-season grasses: smooth brome, Kentucky bluegrass, and crested wheatgrass. They’ve sampled these plants across their life cycles—from spring flush through mid-summer slump to fall dormancy—and they’ve put hard numbers behind what many of us have only guessed at. And here’s the kicker: we’ve got folks, with the best will in the world, spending real money  to spray out “weeds” like goldenrod or native thistle. Then, a few months later, when their cool-season-invaded pastures have lost nutritional punch by late June, they turn around and spend more money  on feed supplements. What if the very plants we’re trying to kill are the ones that can save us money? Pete Bauman drops a truth bomb in the video: “We tested [goldenrod] simply for protein analysis, and it graded out as high as dairy-grade alfalfa—somewhere around 24% crude protein.” Are you kidding me? And Josh Lefers puts a fine point on it: “You can actually put real dollars into the value of that native plant forage.” This is not diversity for diversity’s sake. I’ve sat at ranch kitchen tables with folks who beam as they talk about 60, 70—even 100 species—in a single pasture. That’s not just biological richness. That’s resilience. That’s forage that feeds, heals, and saves money. My friend Dr. Fred Provenza puts it best: “The soil takes sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water and turns the land into a grocery store and a pharmacy.” But that only works if we manage for diversity. This video lays that out plainly. It’s not abstract. It’s not theoretical. It’s field-tested, South Dakota-grown evidence that diverse pastures are profitable pastures . Watch the full video: Catch the July episode of Our Amazing Grasslands  here:👉  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKHYzerG-QA&list=PLg6Jx7lcOmB2YcAWtowbjWSVTRBlCt17o Short on time? We’ve pulled a few of the best moments into video shorts on SD NRCS’s YouTube page . One of my favorites? Pete Bauman calmly explaining that goldenrod rivals alfalfa in protein . You won’t look at “weeds” the same way again.  ______________________________________________ ______________________ Visit these “Growing Resilience Through Our Soils” information pages: 1. Podcast page for drought planning fact sheets, Q&As, news, podcasts, and more. 2. Video page to watch videos of other ranchers’ journeys toward improved rangeland/pasture. 3. Follow Growing Resilience on social media: Facebook - Growing Resilience Twitter - @GrowResilience_ Instagram - growingresilience.sd 4. Our homepage: www.growingresiliencesd.com

We recently posted a video short of Pete Bauman talking about goldenrod on the July "Our Amazing Grasslands" video, and it took off! 110,000 plays and 1,000 likes in just 11 days. With that reach came a tidal wave of comments, and not surprisingly, many folks had strong opinions about goldenrod. They ranged from “Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Let’s feed shoe leather” to “Spot on—my sheep will hit the goldenrod, sunflowers, amaranth, giant ragweed, and mares tail first.” In between those extremes were dozens of goldenrod-curious folks—people asking honest questions like, “But do cattle eat goldenrod?” or “Isn’t goldenrod toxic?” Some commented that goldenrod is especially dangerous during the second trimester of pregnancy. Others swore their goats wouldn’t touch it, despite planting it for pollinators. So let’s unpack this. Sorting Out the Toxicity Question Let’s start with what we’re talking about when we say “goldenrod.” If you’re in South Dakota or most of the eastern or central U.S., you’re almost certainly dealing with Solidago  species—Canada goldenrod (Solidago canadensis), tall goldenrod (Solidago altissima), Missouri goldenrod (Solidago missouriensis), and others. These are non-toxic native forbs . On the other hand, if you’re in parts of Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, or Arizona , you may be dealing with rayless goldenrod — Haplopappus heterophyllus (also known as Isocoma pluriflora). That’s an entirely different plant, and yes, it is toxic. Rayless goldenrod contains tremetol , a compound that can build up in an animal’s system and cause a condition known as "trembles." But here’s the key: according to USDA’s Poisonous Plants bulletins, livestock have to consume 1 to 1.5% of their body weight daily  for two to three weeks for symptoms to show up. So ask yourself: what kind of grazing management allows animals to spend that long on a pasture where that’s the only thing to eat? This isn’t just a plant problem—it’s a management problem. Pete Bauman and I talked about this exact point. We both agree that when animals are forced —say, midwinter in the Southwest with no other forage—then yes, toxic plants become dangerous. But on healthy pastures where animals have choices, it’s a different story entirely. Knowing the Range (and Your Animals) Fred Provenza talks often about how animals that are familiar with their home range behave differently than those that aren’t. In fact, he shared a story about a rancher who split his herd during drought—half stayed on their familiar range, and half were moved just one county over. The cattle on the new range suffered severe losses from locoweed, while the animals that stayed put were unaffected. Why? Because the home herd knew the landscape. They knew what to eat and what to avoid. This same idea applies to goldenrod and other so-called weeds. Animals raised on a pasture with goldenrod (the Solidago kind) simply don’t overeat it. Even goats will learn what’s edible and what’s not—but that learning happens in the context of familiarity and choice. Bottom Line If you’re seeing goldenrod and are worried about toxicity, the first step is to get your ID right; the accompanying image may be of use to you. If it’s Solidago, you’re not dealing with a toxic plant. If it’s Rayless goldenrod (Haplopappus heterophyllus), then yes—take precautions, especially during limited forage seasons. But before reaching for the herbicide jug, I’d echo Pete Bauman’s advice: ask why the weed is there in the first place.   Spraying edible “weeds” is money you’ll never get back . Changing the plant community—through grazing management—is where the real return lies. Coming up next, I’ll dig into the forage potential of goldenrod and what Pete has learned through years of observing cows graze it in South Dakota pastures. You might be surprised by what the protein tests show. Our Podcast Series with Dr. Fred Provenza Podcasts: Tap into the Hidden Wisdom of Livestock Top tips for unlocking Land and Livestock Potential Reimagining Agriculture: Rethinking our Relationships with Nature and the Land Useful References USDA/ARS “Poisonous Plants in the Western States,” Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 415 (discussion of tremetol risk and control recommendations). NMSU Bulletin B 114: Rayless Goldenrod and Livestock Poisonings  – describes biology, toxin, and control. USDA ARS Poisonous Plant Research page on Rayless Goldenrod (Haplopappus heterophyllus): detailed toxicosis features and management. USDA NRCS Plant Fact Sheets / Plant Guides for Solidago canadensis and S. missouriensis  – forage palatability, habitat, and uses. SDSU’s Pete Bauman article: Plan Now to Control Weeds by Grazing Next Season . ______________________________________________ ______________________ 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

Dr. Ray Weil Professor of Soils in the Department of Environmental Science & Technology at the University of Maryland, in a Soils Pit (no tilled for 30+ years) on the Steve Groff Farm in Pennsylvania. When I first started learning about soil, I wasn’t a trained agronomist—I just knew we were supposed to take soil samples down to 6" or 6¼". I didn’t question it at the time. Later, I learned that this 6" layer represents the old plow layer—the zone where most agronomic roots live. But here’s the kicker: they live there not because it’s ideal, but because the plow created a compacted “plow pan” beneath it. This dense, platy layer restricts root growth, moisture movement, and gas exchange. In effect, we were farming in flower pots. I remember standing with Dr. Ray Weil (co-author of The Nature and Properties of Soils ) in October 2014 at Steve Groff’s farm in Pennsylvania. The no-till field we were looking at had been farmed without tillage for over 30 years . We were in a seven-foot-deep soil pit —well over my head, and I’m six feet tall—looking at roots, soil layers, and what Ray called “a huge tank” of deeper water and nutrients separated from crops by a compacted zone. Ray’s message was simple: in many fields, roots can’t reach that tank. They’re blocked by the compaction left behind by decades of tillage, and without a path down, crops hit summer stress and yields drop. A lively debate When we shared Ray’s comments in a short video, the conversation took off online. Here’s a sampling of what people had to say: “Really, who doesn’t know about compaction. Thanks for telling us that.” “Ummm… yaa… ok… sooo, what are the latest potential remedies to loosen up compaction at that depth..???????” “What’s the fix?” “Around here a lot of folks use rippers.” and “Subsoiler is the answer.” “Depends on where you are and the soil type. Rippers are not recommended where I am in Australia.” “And that’s why one could grow a taproot variety of alfalfa if the economics fit. Ours fractured, add nitrogen and built organic matter.” “I’ve no-tilled for over 40 yrs I don’t have compacted soils.” “All well and good. Now make it cash flow. Because without that, it means nothing.” What surprised me was that no one mentioned cover crops —especially since Ray was instrumental in helping Steve Groff import tillage radish seed from Brazil in the early days, showing how biological solutions could address compaction naturally. What’s the fix? Mechanical fixes, like ripping with large shanks, can fracture the compacted layer for a season, but they’re expensive, fuel-intensive, and temporary, since tillage destroys the natural channels roots and earthworms create. Biological fixes, like deep-rooted cover crops , can be permanent—living roots and soil life build and reinforce these pathways year after year, making them easier for future roots to follow without the need to start over. If we want deeper, healthier roots, we have to think beyond the top 6 inches. That means looking at the biology, not just the mechanics , and asking ourselves: What are we missing beneath our feet? 💡 Curious how no-till stacks up in the real world? see how research, field trials, and farmers themselves weigh in:, and the “why” behind the practices: No-Till vs. Tillage: Which Really Lets the Water In? (4 min read) No-Till, No Yield? Are We Putting Corn Above Soybean Yields? (3 min read) Beyond No-Till: Why Crop Rotations Matter More Than You Think When Does No-Till Work? Two Major Studies and What Farmers Told Us What We’re Really Arguing About When We Talk About Tillage?   Other Useful Resources from Dr. Weil If you want to dig deeper into Dr. Weil’s work and the role of cover crops in addressing compaction, here are some excellent starting points: ·      Cover Crops & Soil Compaction – Ray Weil Presentation (Slideshare) ·      YouTube Dr. Weil Taking Cover Crops to the Next Level for Better Management of Nutrients ______________________________________________ ______________________ 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 our spring tour of South Dakota farmers integrating livestock, my partner in crime, Joe Dickie, and I left Huron, and a couple of hours later crested the rise where Ryan Urban lives. Ryan identifies himself as a fourth-generation Pukwana crop-and-cattle producer—he jokes that they’re “cattle people who farm on the side.” With a name like Urban, I half expected him to grab a guitar and sing us a country tune. Instead, he grabbed the keys to his pickup, and we rode out into the fields under a seventy-degree sky, Joe filming, Ryan talking, and me listening. Around us lay pastures of switchgrass and big bluestem, calving grounds that double as pheasant cover in the fall. A little further on, cereal rye stood ready to graze, stretching the feed window before the native range comes on. This rhythm—calves born in the grass, cows turned into rye, full-season cover crops in summer, aftermath and stalks in winter—spoke to a simple but powerful principle: every acre of farm ground, every year, sees a cow. Ryan’s words hung in the air: “Every acre sees a cow.”  It wasn’t just a slogan—it was an operating system. Grain fields, cover crops, corn stalks, even neighbors’ land without cattle—he brings livestock across them all. In his math, the returns are hard to ignore: grazing corn stalks netted him $86 an acre last winter. Add in the fact that his corn yields are up seventy bushels an acre while using a third less fertilizer, and you start to understand why he says the cows are working for him, not the other way around. On one site that was once a gravel pit, he sifted a shovelful of soil through his fingers, the story deepened. This was no gravel lot anymore—though it once was, back when the interstate was built. Years of no-till, cover crops, and cattle have coaxed back life. Organic matter on some fields tops eight percent, water infiltration has improved, and runoff is nearly gone. “I struggle to keep water in the dugouts now,” he laughed. “It all soaks in.” Critics often say livestock compact the soil. Ryan doesn’t dismiss it—he manages it. He moves cattle off when the frost comes out, uses sacrifice pastures, and times grazing to conditions. It’s not problem-free, but neither is it the obstacle some imagine. What he’s built instead is flexibility: cereal rye in spring, full-season covers in fall, grazing nearly eleven months a year. He measures success not in bags of feed bought, but in days he can graze a cow without opening the checkbook. Ryan’s story has a kinship with others we’ve heard on this tour. Like Cody Merrigan east of Vermillion, who bends his system to fit family life. Like Nate Hicks near Yankton, who treats cows as land managers as much as livestock. Each has carved out a system tuned to their place, their rainfall, their soils. Ryan’s version is rooted in Brule County, where water is scarce, winds are relentless, and resilience is currency. As we wrapped up, the sun slanted across fields where rye, cows, and calves stitched together the fabric of his farm. Ryan said it simply: “I can tell how profitable I’ll be with a cow by how long I can graze her, instead of feeding her.” That, in the end, may be the truest definition of livestock integration—not an add-on, but the living hinge of the whole operation. ______________________________________________ ______________________ 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 the South Dakota Coteau, the Michalski family transformed marginal cropland into a thriving, diverse pasture. Discover their grazing strategies, land ethic, and how diversity drives both resilience and profit. It was July 2021 when Joe Dickie and I rolled up to the Michalski spread on the Coteau. Waiting to greet us were Darin, his wife Jessica, and their son Cutler. Darin cut a dashing figure — blue sleeveless button-up, well-worn jeans, cowboy boots planted in the ground, and a baseball cap pulled low. There was something in his stance — easy, alert, weathered by work — that reminded me, apart from the lack of a slouch hat, a little of an Australian drover. I do not doubt that the image he cut with his pasture in the background was the reason his videos attracted more than a few eyeballs on our social media page. I’ll own it now: this story should have been told long ago. Life and projects stacked up, and other deadlines jumped the queue. But sometimes, you need a few years to understand what you saw — to gather the science, the context, and the perspective that make a story worth telling. And now, with a summer full of conversations about forbs, diversity, and resilience, I see the Michalski place for what it is: a master class in the land ethic. A place made for pasture The Coteau isn’t a forgiving country for row crops. It’s rolling glacial ground — thin soils draped over old ice-scoured hills — where rain comes when it will, and water has its own mind. For years, parts of Darin’s operation were cropped, but the returns were thin, the soil tired. So he began converting marginal cropland back into pasture. Not out of nostalgia, but because grass, forbs, and legumes were what the land wanted to be. “We’re better able to utilize our resources — moving from cool seasons into warm seasons, letting them regrow, and getting more grazing time on each paddock,” he says. Diversity didn’t just happen When we stepped into Darin’s pastures, the first thing he did wasn’t talk about pounds of beef or bushels of grain. He pointed out plants. Leadplant, purple prairie clover, Canada milkvetch — and plenty of others that most folks might call weeds. He’s learned that timing is the lever that changes everything. “We’ve found that hitting those cool-season invaders hard in the spring really makes a difference. You knock them back, and suddenly those native warm-season grasses you hadn’t seen in years start coming back.” This wasn’t just good botany — it was good grazing. Those forbs and warm-season natives aren’t filler; they’re protein-rich, drought-hardy, and they stretch the grazing season deep into the shoulder months. More grass, longer seasons By rotating carefully and letting plants recover, Darin has not only rebuilt plant diversity — he’s extended the grazing window. “The latest we’ve had our cows out was February 1st. We didn’t run out of grass — we ran out of places to graze. That’s how much we’re able to extend the season now.” That’s not just a win for the cattle — it’s a win for the balance sheet. Less hay bought in, fewer tractor hours, more resilience in dry years. On the Coteau, that kind of insurance is worth as much as rain in July. Choosing diversity over the quick fix Darin learned the hard way what happens when you try to “clean up” a pasture with chemicals. “I sprayed all my pastures once years ago, then it turned dry, and it set my grass back so bad. There were no legumes or forbs. I went away from that, and now I’d rather manage weeds with grazing timing than wipe out the diversity.” It’s a lesson in patience — one that runs counter to the idea that faster is always better. In this country, it’s often the slower road that takes you where you want to go. The land ethic in practice When Aldo Leopold wrote about the “land ethic,” he described a shift from seeing land as a commodity to seeing it as a community — something you belong to, not something you own. On the Michalski spread, that ethic isn’t a plaque on the wall; it’s in the daily decisions, the rotation plans, and the way Darin talks with landlords about grass health. “We’re not perfect by any means, but we’re trying to improve the land — and that should be worth a lot.” It’s also in the way he sees cattle: not just as a product, but as the engine that turns sunlight, soil, and a mess of plants into food. “When you can take plants that people can’t eat and turn them into a nutrient-dense protein package, you’re converting something undervalued into something essential.” Right on time Yes, this story is late. But maybe it took two extra years and a July spent knee-deep in forbs to see just how much it matters. In a season when we’ve been talking about the value of diversity, the Michalskis are proof that it’s not theory — it’s what makes the land, the livestock, and the livelihood more resilient. ______________________________________________ ______________________ Visit these “Growing Resilience Through Our Soils” information pages: 1. Podcast page for drought planning fact sheets, Q&As, news, podcasts, and more. 2. Video page to watch videos of other ranchers’ journeys toward improved rangeland/pasture. 3. Follow Growing Resilience on social media: Facebook - Growing Resilience Twitter - @GrowResilience_ Instagram - growingresilience.sd 4. Our homepage: www.growingresiliencesd.com

Van Mansheim in one of his Cover-Cropped Fields, October 2020. I first visited Van Mansheim on his farm in October 2020, and when I recently sat down again for a podcast interview with him, the conversation quickly grew beyond a podcast. Van is the whole package: no-till, long rotations, cover crops, bale grazing, livestock integration, and even a pheasant hunting enterprise. In the past week I’ve spent hours answering questions on our social media about no-till, inputs, weeds, and soil biology — and Van spoke to every one of them from lived experience. He doesn’t deal in abstractions. He speaks as a fourth-generation farmer, a businessman, and as a board member of the South Dakota Soil Health Coalition who knows how to make soil health principles work in real fields. About 5 miles north of Colome in Tripp County, Van is showing that no-till can be more than a planting method — it can be a gateway to resilience. Since going all-in on no-till in 2010, he has built a system of long rotations, cover crops, bale grazing, and livestock integration. The result? Healthier soils, stronger crops, and lower costs. Van doesn’t just speak from the seat of his tractor. On the Soil Health Coalition board, he helps other producers think through the same challenges he’s faced. His credibility comes not from theory but from the struggles he’s wrestled with and the rewards he’s seen. Like many, he found no-till alone wasn’t enough. “It was when we started bringing in covers in 2014 that things really changed,” he recalls, crediting neighbor Brian Jorgensen, also of Tripp County, for encouragement. Cover crops filled the root gap, gave him living plants between cash crops, and made spring planting easier. Mud no longer balled up on the planter; residue no longer sat heavy. Microbes and livestock cycled it back into the soil. The economics followed. By building biology with diverse rotations and livestock, Van steadily cut fertilizer needs. He’s also gone more than a decade without spraying a fungicide — solid evidence that resilient soils and diverse rotations can keep crops healthy without an endless stream of inputs. “If the soil biology’s doing its job, you don’t need to reach for a jug every time,” he says. Rotation is another cornerstone: four years of high-carbon crops, then one year of low-carbon. Sometimes he seeds a “succotash” mix — multiple species together — that doubles as forage for cattle and food for the microbes. Every decision starts with biology, knowing that economics follow. “Farmers are practical,” Van says. “We don’t change unless we see it working.” That pragmatism is why Van has become such a strong advocate for the full suite of soil health principles. He reminds others — especially those debating online — that no-till by itself isn’t a silver bullet. But paired with covers, rotations, and livestock, it lowers input costs, reduces risk, and leaves soils stronger year after year. And the results don’t just show up in spreadsheets. Hunters who come to Van’s pheasant operation remark on the look and feel of his ground. Neighbors notice the difference in infiltration after a rain. For Van, those signs are as convincing as any research trial: living proof that resilient soils are profitable soils. This post is part of a companion piece. There was too much to share in a single post, so we decided to separate them even though they form a whole. Be sure to read the other post here to get the full story. ______________________________________________ ______________________ 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

It was the kind of late-summer afternoon when the land itself feels like it’s holding its breath. Ray Archuleta had come in from his home in Missouri to speak at the SC Forage and Grazing Lands Coalition, but before he ever set foot in a lecture hall, we wanted him out on the land, where his words always seem to take root. We brought him to Jason Carter’s farm — a familiar place for us, a living classroom. On one side of a dirt track: Jason’s ground, managed with no-till, long rotations, cover crops, and livestock. On the other hand, the very same Orangeburg loamy sand was managed conventionally with tillage and low diversity. Two fields, fifty feet apart, the same soil series, divided only by management. We’ve often brought visitors here to see the contrast, and the soils still spoke clearly. But this time what struck us most wasn’t the dirt underfoot — it was the weeds. Both fields had recently come out of corn. In the conventional ground, Palmer amaranth was already charging ahead, while Jason’s field, still green with cover, held weeds only here and there. Ray grinned at the sight. “If you want to preserve weed seeds,”  he said, “bury them with tillage.” Tackling the Sticking Points For months, our Growing Resilience community online has been hashing out the hard questions. Many of them made their way into the field with us that afternoon. “No-till makes soils hard as concrete.” Ray didn’t dodge. “Yes, no-till soils can get compacted. But the cure isn’t more steel — it’s living roots. Life creates porosity. There’s no piece of equipment on this planet that can do what biology does.” “Diversity just means more disease.” Ray shook his head. “Nature is self-healing, self-regulating. The real cause of disease is planting the same thing over and over. Nature wants diversity. The soil wants different roots, different exudates, different foods.” “Cover crops are just another cost.” Ray told us he prefers the term “service crops.”   “Because they serve the next corn, the next soybean, the microbes, the climate — they serve life itself.” “Livestock don’t belong on cropland.” Ray was emphatic: “Nature does not farm without animals. If I were forced to grow corn and soybeans, I’d fence my whole farm and run livestock. Animals bring freedom from the bank — but only if you’re ready to manage them well.” “Forbs are weeds on rangeland.” Ray reminded us: “Grasslands are not just grasses. They have legumes, forbs, deep-rooted plants that feed different microbes. Forbs bring nutrients to cattle that grasses don’t. Healthy land is a supermarket and a pharmacy, all at once.” “Longer rotations don’t pay.” Ray countered with what research — and farmers like Darren Williams in Kansas — have shown: “Bring wheat or oats into a corn-soy rotation and inputs drop, infiltration rises, pest cycles break. Profitability isn’t in one crop — it’s in the whole rotation.” “No-till just means more chemicals.” Ray leaned in on this one. “As soils get healthy, they need fewer inputs. Weed populations shift. Fungicides, insecticides, fertilizers — they all go down. The soil can’t get healthy without living covers, but when it does, you need less chemistry, not more.” From Questions to Conversations We filmed it all, not as a lecture, but as a conversation with the land itself. The tough questions came straight from our readers and neighbors, sharpened by skepticism. The answers came with soil in hand, with earthworms dangling, with clods breaking or holding depending on the management. Ray often returns to a single line: “The soil is alive.”  Yet, as he admitted that afternoon, “I’ve only been impressed with maybe 10 or 15 producers for their knowledge of the soil — and I meat thousands. We’re at a very low level of understanding.” That truth is harder to ignore when you see two fields side by side, one brittle and one full of life. The outing reminded us that skepticism is not an obstacle — it’s an opening. When you take the hard questions out into the land, the answers are waiting. ______________________________________________ ______________________ 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

Cover Crop Mix In early September 2013, just before the Atlas storm swept across the Dakotas, I met Dr. Mark Liebig at the USDA-ARS laboratory in Mandan, North Dakota. He handed me a single laminated sheet — the now-famous Cover Crop Chart  — a visual guide to plant diversity that still feels timeless, like a periodic table for living systems. Each square on that chart represented not just a species but a function in the soil ecosystem. I’d first encountered the idea of crop and cover crop diversity three years earlier, in Burleigh County, ND, and it changed how I thought about diversity. The pattern was simple yet profound: four great functional groups — warm-season grasses, cool-season grasses, cool-season broadleaves, and warm-season broadleaves . Within those quadrants lay nearly every cover-crop decision a farmer could make. Diversity, I realized, wasn’t random mixing; it was design  — the deliberate arrangement of contrasts in growth habit, rooting depth, and seasonality that keeps a system balanced. When Liebig and his colleagues at Mandan began articulating what they called Dynamic Cropping Systems  or DCS (Liebig et al. 899–903), that principle found its scientific footing. A dynamic system isn’t a fixed rotation but an adaptive one — a sequence that responds to precipitation, market signals, soil conditions, and opportunity. It’s diversity over time and space: a living experiment that evolves with each season. That same theme echoes in Natalie Sturm’s recent essay, “It’s Not Just No-Till: Why Crop Rotations Matter More Than You Think” . Sturm argues that no-till practices alone can’t deliver resilience unless they’re paired with thoughtful crop rotations — a claim that mirrors Liebig’s research from the northern Great Plains. Both contend that diversity, not uniformity, is the real driver of soil health. Liebig’s long-term research at Mandan confirmed that principle in practice. His team found that dynamic cropping systems improved both yields and soil health, with higher organic matter content and infiltration rates than in static three-year rotations (Liebig et al. 2007). Flexible sequencing also reduced disease and weed pressure while improving precipitation use efficiency and nutrient use efficiency (Tanaka et al. 2007). As weather variability increases, such adaptable systems become not just beneficial but essential — enhancing resilience by allowing producers to seize environmental and market opportunities, increasing adaptability “amid an uncertain future” (Hanson et al. 2007). Fast-forward to September 2025, when I spoke again with Ray Archuleta—this time in the Carolinas. Ray calls living plants “the mouth of the soil.” His language of green bridging —keeping living roots active between crops—reminded me of Liebig’s data-driven insight. While Liebig quantifies dynamic systems, Ray personifies them. One speaks in charts and yield curves, the other in parables of living roots and “liquid sun.” While Ray speaks evocatively of living roots and “liquid sun,” it’s important to be precise: “green bridge” is also a pathology term. A green bridge forms when living plants — volunteers, weeds, or poorly chosen cover species — persist between cash crops, providing pathogens or insect pests with continual living tissue in which to survive and multiply. That continuity can increase disease carryover from season to season. The flip side, which Liebig’s dynamic-sequencing logic supports, is that thoughtful sequence and species choice can break that bridge: terminating a host cover before pathogen buildup, selecting non-host covers, timing grazing or termination to interrupt lifecycles, and building a microbial community that suppresses disease. In short, green bridging can be a problem — or, if managed deliberately, a problem prevented. (Liebig et al. 2007; Tanaka et al. 2007). When we speak of “context,” the sixth soil-health principle, this is what we mean. What works in one system may falter in another. Liebig’s 2006 paper on long-term DCS trials stresses that such research must evolve with local conditions; static experiments risk losing relevance as environments and markets change (Liebig et al., 2006 ). So here’s the takeaway. A cover crop isn’t just  a pause between cash crops, or an erosion stopper—it’s a service  crop, a connection of life that carries energy from one season to the next. Liebig’s science and Archuleta’s storytelling both remind us: if the soil stays green, it stays alive. Works Cited (Please get in touch with us if you have any problems accessing these works.) Hanson, Jonathan D., Mark A. Liebig, Stephen D. Merrill, Donald L. Tanaka, and Joseph M. Krupinsky. “Dynamic Cropping Systems: Increasing Adaptability amid an Uncertain Future.” Agronomy Journal , vol. 99, no. 4, 2007, pp. 939–43. USDA ARS. Liebig, Mark A., Donald L. Tanaka, Joseph M. Krupinsky, Stephen D. Merrill, and Jonathan D. Hanson. “Dynamic Cropping Systems: Contributions to Improve Agroecosystem Sustainability.” Agronomy Journal , vol. 99, no. 4, 2007, pp. 899–903. USDA ARS. Liebig, Mark A., Donald L. Tanaka, Joseph M. Krupinsky, Stephen D. Merrill, and Jonathan D. Hanson. “Dynamic Cropping Systems: Implications for Long-Term Research.” Proceedings of the Great Plains Soil Fertility Conference , vol. 11, 2006, pp. 132–36. Kansas State University. Sturm, Natalie. It’s Not Just No-Till: Crop Rotations Are Key to Improving Soil Quality and Grain Yields at Dakota Lakes Research Farm. Master’s thesis, South Dakota State University, 2022. Open Prairie, https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/etd2/366 . Tanaka, Donald L., Joseph M. Krupinsky, Stephen D. Merrill, Mark A. Liebig, and Jonathan D. Hanson. “Dynamic Cropping Systems for Sustainable Crop Production in the Northern Great Plains.” Agronomy Journal , vol. 99, no. 4, 2007, pp. 904–11. USDA ARS. Summaries of Liebig’s Works Liebig et al. (2007), “Dynamic Cropping Systems: Contributions to Improve Agroecosystem Sustainability.” Introduces the DCS concept, emphasizing adaptability in crop sequencing. Reports yield and soil improvements from flexible rotations compared with fixed systems. Advocates for managing cropping decisions annually based on environmental and economic factors. Tanaka et al. (2007), “Dynamic Cropping Systems for Sustainable Crop Production in the Northern Great Plains.” Field data from no-till DCS experiments show that prior crop and residue strongly affect yield , residue cover, and precipitation-use efficiency. Demonstrates that legumes and diverse rotations enhance system stability. Hanson et al. (2007), “Dynamic Cropping Systems: Increasing Adaptability amid an Uncertain Future.” Argues that DCS prepares producers for future climate and market variability. Calls adaptability the new cornerstone of sustainability and encourages long-term monitoring of DCS impacts. Liebig et al. (2006), “Dynamic Cropping Systems: Implications for Long-Term Research.” Examines how to design meaningful long-term DCS trials. Suggests that research must adapt to remain relevant and that flexible experimentation better mirrors real-world farming decisions. ______________________________________________ ______________________ Visit these “Growing Resilience Through Our Soils” information pages: 1. Podcast page for drought planning fact sheets, Q&As, news, podcasts, and more. 2. Video page to watch videos of other ranchers’ journeys toward improved rangeland/pasture. 3. Follow Growing Resilience on social media: Facebook - Growing Resilience Twitter - @GrowResilience_ Instagram - growingresilience.sd 4. Our homepage: www.growingresiliencesd.com

Classic Ray Weil. Lancaster Co., PA. Oct 2014 By Buz Kloot Note: We have links at the end of the blog under the header, Works Cited. There are a few conversations I’ve had in the past decade and a half that changed my life. Two of them were meeting Ray Archuleta in February 2010, my Atlas Storm encounter with Dwayne Beck on October 5, 2013. Another was the afternoon of October 2, 2014 — standing in a deep soil pit on Steve Groff’s farm in Pennsylvania, as Dr. Ray Weil drew our attention below the plow layer. What struck me wasn’t just the science. It was the profound idea that this soil-health revolution wasn’t driven only by breakthroughs in labs or university towers—but by the innovation, risk-taking, and persistence of farmers and ranchers  who have long known that soil is alive, and that the standard textbook definitions may often be inadequate for the work ahead. Farmers and Ranchers First In South Dakota (full disclosure, I am probably biased), from prairie ranches to row-crop landscapes, producers have been quietly, relentlessly shifting how they see the ground beneath their feet. They’ve walked fence lines, watched cattle tracks fade into cover-crop residue, and re-imagined how they manage their fields — trading tillage passes for living roots. Institutions like the South Dakota NRCS, SDSU, the South Dakota Grassland Coalition, and the South Dakota Soil Health Coalition have supported this transition — yes, cost-sharing from NRCS helps, but the true long-term change was wrought by education. These organizations work hand in hand to expand understanding of soil and rangeland ecology, and, in my opinion, the connection between NRCS field offices, soil-health specialists, rangeland specialists, and peer-to-peer support systems among producers is exemplary. Through field days, grazing schools, and on-farm demonstrations, they bring producers together with scientists, educators, and each other. These are not passive recipients of somebody else’s plan — they are co-creators of the possibilities. The Science is Still Trying to Catch up! Ray Weil’s work exemplifies how science was (and, IMOHO, still is) trying to catch up with farmer and rancher wisdom. His decades-long research at the University of Maryland Soil Quality Lab has explored nutrient cycling, soil organic matter, cover-crop systems, and the dynamics of deep soil beyond the traditional surface layer (“Weil — College of AGNR”).In one of his articles, he even called the cover-crop boom a “renaissance” — not because cover cropping is new, but because science can now document its many ecosystem services and profitability potential (“Weil, ‘Cover Cropping Benefits’”). For example, cover crops planted early, terminated later, and managed with minimal disturbance can dramatically reduce nitrate leaching, build soil organic matter, improve structure, and return nutrients to the surface in ways that conventional fertilizer-centric models don’t recognize (“Get More from Cover Crops”). A Revolution of Perspective In my interview, I began to realize: “The thing that really caught me as a scientist … the idea that this revolution happened not because of scientific breakthroughs per se, but because farmers and ranchers were doing things that were different, that were thinking outside the box.” Here’s what that means in practice: Instead of digging only six to ten inches, we peer deeper into the profile —the “plow layer” is only a shallow start. Instead of assuming tillage is the only way to relieve compaction, roots of species like radish (and other brassicas) become “bio-drills,” opening pathways for new roots and life (Weil). Instead of thinking of nutrients as locked in fixed pools and released only via fertilizer or mineralization, we see plants, microbes, and soil structure interacting to unlock and recycle nutrients in place (Weil). Instead of approaching soil as a chemical medium to be corrected, we approach soil as a living, shifting system where biology, chemistry, and physics converge. South Dakota’s Role in the Story While some of the earliest mechanistic research has been done in mid-Atlantic or humid zones, the lessons are highly relevant to semi-arid and fringe climates like South Dakota’s. The soil-health pioneers there are proving that context matters: the right species mix, the right grazing timing, the right cover-crop termination date, the right paddock layout. The role of SD NRCS and its partners is essential because they help tailor practices to local soils, climate, and enterprise models (think context). These farmer-led experiments — supported by local networks, extension, and NRCS — are exactly what Ray Weil spoke about when he said “the farmers in this case were ahead of the scientists.” Why It Matters This isn’t just about “doing something nice for the soil.” It’s about resilience, profitability, adaptation, and stewardship. The benefits: Better infiltration, less runoff, less erosion. Reduced fertilizer costs and reduced nutrient loss. More stable soil structure, more living roots year-round, more microbial activity, stronger resilience to drought or heavy rain. A shift away from the “fix the bugs with chemicals” mindset to “support the living system so it thrives on its own.” The Soil Health Revolution Then and Now In 2010, soil health and soil biology were often dismissed as fringe, or “pseudoscience.” And yet here we are, a decade and a half later, with a growing body of research, farmer-led proof, and institutional support. Ray Weil’s willingness to say, “Yes, the farmers figured things out first, and we scientists get to catch up,” is a mark of humility and a model for how research and practice should align. Now, we can see the results of a soil health revolution! In Closing The soil-health revolution is real — and it is real because people on the land made it so. Dr. Ray Weil’s work helps frame, explain, and amplify what the early adopters have already begun. But the strength of this movement lies in the generosity and collaboration that sustain it — the sharing of ideas across fence lines, the willingness of neighbors to mentor one another, and the steady partnerships among farmers, ranchers, and those who support them. In South Dakota, that combination of a pragmatic producer mindset, local institutional support, and an openness to think differently offers hope for a resilient, regenerative future. To every farmer, rancher, technician, NRCS staffer, and mentor who — even when the textbooks said “this won’t work” — simply tried it anyway: thank you. This blog is for you. Works Cited “Weil — College of Agriculture & Natural Resources.” University of Maryland College of AGNR , https://agnr.umd.edu/about/directory/ray-weil . Weil, Ray. “Cover Cropping Benefits.” The Earth and I , 2021, https://www.theearthandi.org/post/cover-cropping-benefits . “Get More from Cover Crops: Seed Early.” Soybean Research & Information Network , United Soybean Board, 2022, https://soybeanresearchinfo.com/research-highlight/get-more-from-cover-crops-seed-early/ . Weil, Ray. Interview with Buz Kloot.  Steve Groff Farm, Pennsylvania, 2014. Transcript file / mnt/data/WeilAudioPodcastMaster.mp3.txt. On soil science and the soil health revolution. __________ 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

SDSU Beresford Station, SD. Photo Credit: Randy Halverson By Buz Kloot This research summary expands on our earlier blog, “No-Till, No Yield: Are We Putting Corn Above Soybean Yields?” . After taking a short pause in posting, we realized we still have much more to share on the tillage conversation — and this piece offers a timely refresher before we dive deeper into the economics of rotation and soil resilience. Background Our earlier article asked whether focusing on corn yields alone gives a distorted picture of no-till performance. The evidence suggests it does. When soybeans and rotation diversity enter the equation, the economics shift — often in favor of no-till systems. No-Till Performance in South Dakota and Beyond At SDSU’s Beresford Research Farm , Pete Sexton and colleagues (2018) tracked 27 years of corn–soybean data under no-till and conventional tillage. Corn : Conventional tillage outyielded no-till by an average of 6.1 bu/ac. Soybeans : No-till outperformed by 1.8 bu/ac. But in 3- and 4-year rotations , the results reversed: No-till corn exceeded conventional yields by 1.3–1.8 bu/ac. No-till soybeans gained 1.4–2.5 bu/ac. These findings demonstrate that as rotation lengths increase, yield gaps close — and often flip in favor of no-till. A University of Minnesota  study (DeJong-Hughes & Vetsch, 2007) found similar patterns. Cool years penalized no-till corn by 9.6 bu/ac, while warmer years narrowed that to 4.7 bu/ac. When averaged, these outcomes align with Beresford’s long-term results. Rotation Diversity Pays In her 2022 M.S. thesis, Natalie Sturm  studied irrigated corn and wheat systems at Dakota Lakes Research Farm. She found that diverse rotations  — particularly those including small grains and legumes — improved soil structure, moisture efficiency, and total grain yields. These gains reinforce the conclusion that rotation diversity enhances no-till performance  and resilience. Economics and Farmer Behavior As Dr. Dwayne Beck  of Dakota Lakes puts it: “Farmers vote with their fields.”The persistence of no-till across the Northern Plains is a practical verdict — not a philosophical one. Growers stick with systems that offer a better return relative to risk , and long-term no-tillers consistently report reduced input costs, improved soil water use, and stable yields across variable years. Looking Ahead The next question is purely economic: What does a longer rotation really cost — or save — over time? Research from Brookings and on-farm trials across South Dakota suggest that extended rotations can actually improve profitability, even when corn takes a smaller share of acres. We’ll explore that in our next post. References Beck, D. (n.d.). Unifying Principles: Similarities Among Prairie Ecosystems.  Dakota Lakes Research Farm.DeJong-Hughes, J., & Vetsch, J. (2007). On-Farm Comparison of Conservation Tillage Systems for Corn Following Soybeans.  University of Minnesota. Pittelkow, C. M., Liang, X., Linquist, B. A., et al. (2015). Productivity limits and potentials of the principles of conservation agriculture.   Nature, 517 , 365–368. Sexton, P., Rops, B., Stevens, R., Williamson, G., & Sweeter, C. (2018). Long-Term Rotation and Tillage Study: Observations on Corn and Soybean Yields – 2018 Season.   SDSU Southeast Research Farm Annual Report.Sturm, N. (2022). It’s Not Just No-Till: Crop Rotations are Key to Improving Soil Quality and Grain Yields at Dakota Lakes Research Farm.  M.S. Thesis, South Dakota State University. __________ 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