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In this week’s “Rodeo”, Jeff Hamilton shares with us the successes he’s starting to see in his unproductive, saline cropland areas when he started thinking about them differently. Jeff Hamilton farms with his brother Scott and his son John in east central South Dakota. They primarily grow corn, soybeans, alfalfa, and have started planting other forage crops on saline soils.  Rye is also grown for seed, harvested as forage, and used for grazing.  The farm supports 1200 beef cattle, and they finish their own calves.  Jeff has started large-scale composting of the manure generated from the livestock to improve his soils’ health. 1)    What one thing have you done that's been most important to the success of your operation? I would say staying diversified. Growing up, my number one income producing item was cattle sales. As grain prices rose, grain overtook the top spot on the income statement.  As a result, the cattle and fences disappeared in this part of the country. Much of the pastureland was converted to cropland. Folks didn’t want to work with livestock and invest that much capital and labor for keeping the cattle around. There was an economic decision to be made. Why should I keep the cattle? Where I live, there's a lot of marginal ground that's not suitable for growing corn and soybeans, even though that's what people have been trying do with it.  I've started putting those areas back to other uses. I just got tired of watching areas that shouldn't have ever been planted to cash crops get worse. Diversity has value in more than one way. Caring for the cows and finishing the calves is a good part time job and it keeps you out of the bar at night! 2)    Can you recall a moment or a time when the light bulb went on for you that you realized soil health practices make sense or that you should change the way that you were farming? 2019 was extremely wet in South Dakota, and it carried over into 2020. In 2019 there were a lot of prevent plant acres. We planted a 7-species cover crop mix on some of our ground, and even though my corn and soybeans looked phenomenal, it was the cover crop that excited me. The grain prices were such that even though I knew I was going to have a good crop, I wasn't going to make any money. I found myself driving up and looking at the cover crop.  I would open up the canopy and realize what was growing. That’s when I started looking at things differently. In that mixture there was forage sorghum, Japanese millet, oats, radishes, turnips, and crimson clover. The Japanese millet grew to the water's edge, and on the hilltop, which was only five feet higher in elevation, was predominantly forage sorghum.  Everything else I planted was growing well together.  I remember taking a picture and thinking, why? We have a lot of saline areas on our land. The water runs to the low ground, and during the summer it evaporates, leaving the salt. I had been planting corn and soybeans, collecting my prevent plant check and watching those areas get larger. It wasn't until I started looking at what the ground was telling me that it made sense. 3)    What surprised you most when you changed the way you farmed to include soil health practices? The speed at which the soil can correct the saline areas if we let it.  The saline areas bothered me because they kept getting bigger. In 2016 we started seeding a blend of salt tolerant grasses and alfalfa directly into these saline areas.  I remember taking a picture and sending it to my consultant asking, “Is this success or is this failure?”  We started just haying it and now I am getting good quality and quantity of forage from these acres. A negative producing piece of land was turned to a positive. We have planted over 160 acres back to perennial grasses now. We did it three, four, or five acres at a time. 4)    What would you say is the biggest misconception people have who are not managing their farming systems for resiliency and soil health? Farming the easy way is the most profitable way. Farmers tend to think more yield equals more profit. You still need to produce bushels, but at the same time you have to do it profitably. If I look back at the last 10 years, there were some very tough years where we were basically running at break even or just below.  What would happen if we removed some of the lowest producing soils from our field and let the precision equipment do its job? Our cash crops are inundated with technology. To kill weeds, pests, diseases now we use multiple modes of action that overlap.  A few years back 1 mode took care of the problem.  When you add up all the inputs on the non-productive soils, it’s a no-brainer to stop farming them. But it is easier to drive straight, so most farmers do this and resist change. 5)    Is there something you'd still like to do that you have not yet tried to improve your soil health on your farm? I started composting. It was not on the list of things to do in 2022, but the whole composting process has made a believer out of me. I took cattails, rye straw, dry cattle manure, wood chips, and a little bit of rye grain, combined them with water and I watched it turn to humus compost in six weeks’ time. We've sent our compost to be tested chemically, biologically and are encouraged by what we are finding. 6)    What advice do you have for someone who is considering changing their farming system to one that is better for building soil health? Start small and watch the plants. There are a couple older gentlemen I visited with and asked, “how do I tell if I’m succeeding?” One response was “If you want to know how much biology is working in your field, just take a rod, stick it in the ground. However far you can push that rod in is how far your biology is working.” Very, very basic answer. The other response was “just watch the plants”. 7)    When you walk across your crop lands, what do you look for as an indicator of healthy soils? Bringing back the diversity that was there when we started tilling the soil. When you stop doing stuff to the land and start working with the land you will see indicators that you are doing something good. One day while feeding cattle I was thinking, “why don't we have all these saline areas out in our pastures?”  God gave us a plant for every acre and the human, doing what humans do, we screw it up. We took out that diversity. We have been told that to grow corn, it cannot have any competition around it. To grow soybeans, it cannot have any competition around it. But look at Mother Nature, she doesn’t have 30 inches between her plants with no competition around them. 8)    What change have you made that at first you thought would never work? Planting salt tolerant plants in ground that is barren and won’t grow kochia and wondering, “is this just a waste of $100 per acre of seed cost?” You have to have a little bit of faith or a lot of “what the hell” in you, because otherwise you say, “why would you do that?” That's a fair point. Who is going to spend $100 an acre and not know if something's going to grow? 9)    What are the signs your cropland is resilient and what does resiliency mean to you? My father bought a quarter of ground that was productive soil when my brother and I were in high school in the 1980’s.  By 2019 that quarter has 30 to 50 acres of moderate to high salt. I was the one who farmed it during those years and followed accepted farming practices. We let it get into that shape.  I do feel like a hypocrite. Those 30 to 50 acres are now growing a solid stand of oats and will be transitioned into perennial grasses.  The land is resilient and will correct itself if we let it. 10) What indicators do you have that healthy soil practices also make economic sense for you? On my saline areas, I had grass seed investment that first year I took the saline soils out of crop production.  I don't have any costs associated with fertilizer or chemicals, yet my tonnage goes up. Those areas have plenty of moisture, but they don't grow any plants because the natural system is broken. We are going to study applying compost to my crop land and cutting back on commercial fertilizer to determine what the economic threshold will be. ____________________________________________________________________ Visit these “Growing Resilience Through Our Soils” information pages: 1. Podcast page for drought planning fact sheets, Q&As, news, podcasts and more. 2. Video page to watch videos of other ranchers’ journeys toward improved rangeland/pasture. 3.Follow Growing Resilience on social media: Facebook - Growing Resilience Twitter - @GrowResilience_ Instagram - growingresilience.sd 4. Our homepage: www.growingresiliencesd.com

On this week’s “Resilience Rodeo”, Chris Nissen talks about the importance of not only trying new practices you’re curious about, but the importance of having the mentality that it can and will work, and that just because something doesn’t change immediately doesn’t mean that it isn’t working. In the southeast corner of SD, Chris Nissen farms primarily corn and soybeans with his dad. They also grow cereal grains to provide themselves with cover crop for the following year, and help their soils improve in the process. Decreased inputs and more time for himself and his family have shown Chris that the benefits of soil health practices span far beyond just his soils. 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

Laura Kahler is the director of the South Dakota Grassland Initiative (SDGI) and a graduate of South Dakota State University. After studying agricultural education in college, Kahler gained experience in 4-H youth programs, bringing agricultural education and context to clubs, schools, and grant-funded programs. Kahler’s upbringing, studies, and background have coalesced to provide her with a unique perspective on South Dakota agriculture and habitat, culminating in a distinct understanding of the importance of collaboration and education to move the needle of regional land perspective and practice. Laura Kahler is originally from Wisconsin, the daughter of a game warden with a background in state wetland conservation. This upbringing offered her a unique perspective rooted in conservation and appreciation of natural habitats, resources, and species. With this innate appreciation for the natural elements of an ecosystem, she set out to broaden others’ perspectives on what land is, what it needs, and what it offers. “You start asking yourself, how can we get other people to have the same mindset and larger appreciation?” Kahler explains. “To me, when I’m out hunting, it’s not just about shooting that pheasant down, it’s about being outside, appreciating the species I’m seeing. A lot of people who aren’t involved in either hunting or cattle production make assumptions about the ways that things are done and not recognizing that both groups are very instrumental in the conservation of the grasslands.” In college, Kahler met and married a Wildlife & Fisheries major with a range minor and with him began to ranch in Colome, SD, where the two have been for about a decade. Through this experience, Kahler began to learn more about the other side of understanding grasslands: the perspective of what a producer needs in order to support a functional operation. Prior to moving to South Dakota, Kahler’s Wisconsin education did not direct much attention to grasses. “Our schools and 4-H programs talked a lot about trees, but I didn’t really know that much about grasses. Grass was grass. And until I moved here and started learning more, grass was just the green stuff that was covering the ground,” says Kahler. “My appreciation has totally switched as I learned about the species and the characteristics, to the point where now I’ll be out pheasant hunting, and instead of looking for pheasants, I’ll be looking at the ground getting excited about all the grasses that I’m seeing.” South Dakota Grasslands Initiative - The Inspiration This embrace of South Dakotan landscape was kickstarted by several different partners, especially the South Dakota Grassland Coalition.  The partners realized that that in South Dakota, diverse groups are very open to collaboration, however they realized that South Dakota would need more than openness to address the grasslands crisis. What was needed was some type of network for communication, from this need the South Dakota Grasslands Initiative was born. With funding that came in the fall of 2023, Kahler was brought on as executive director. In her short time as executive director, she notes: “I had a group of about 10 individuals from different organizations that I was working with,” said Kahler. “Each person had a very similar vision of what they wanted. But it’s kind of like the story of the blind individuals all looking at the elephant and imagining something different. We needed to all get on the same page and be sure we were looking at this from the same lens so we could move forward. The summer involved getting all the paperwork ready to launch this, and I started in August.” One of the first intentions of the initiative was to reinvent who was considered a grassland partner. Traditionally, only those with explicit interest in grasslands were considered relevant to grassland management and decisions, such as ranchers or conservation groups. “But there are grassland partners beyond that,” explains Kahler. “Maybe it’s a person who works 8-5 in the office, but on the weekend, they go out hunting. Or maybe they just like to go bike through the grasslands, and just like to appreciate having that space and recognizing that part of being a South Dakotan is appreciating the grasslands.” The SDGI respects that real change begins with a recognition of the entirety of perspectives that are relevant to grasslands. Within Kahler’s first week in the position, she was a part of the Americas Grassland Conference. This event enlightened her to the extent of grassland awareness and the breadth of the movement. This event motivated her to play her part and carry her weight regionally. She returned to South Dakota fresh with optimism and strategy to develop SDGI; its mission, values, and ensuing projects. SDGI - The Mission The mission of the South Dakota Grassland Initiative is to promote South Dakota grasslands through elevating public awareness and supporting those who want to make an impact, for the benefit of current and future generations. The core values of the initiative are: • Retention of South Dakota’s native prairie ecosystems • Science-based education and decision making • Acknowledgement of traditional knowledge • Discussion that honors opposing viewpoints and perspectives • Support for producers & landowners who want to improve grasslands • Recognition that diversified income streams are essential to sustainable agricultural operations for the benefit of all South Dakotans Kahler’s local work with the initiative seeks to support producers to make the best use of their land; for themselves, their family and their community. Culturally, there can be a lot of pressure to convert pasture or grasslands. “Even if that landowner recognizes that their family and community value the grassland, the soil, the birds, there can still be incredible pressure to make it profitable,” says Kahler. “I think it’s important that we provide the resources so that those who want to keep their land in grass have those resources there to say- help me learn how to be more profitable, help me use program.” Kahler would like to enlighten producers, farmers and ranchers to the wealth of options that exist to widen their operations: regenerative grazing systems that enrich grasses, partners that can support more holistic land management, and education that can enhance understanding of what healthy grasslands need. The SDGI aims to engineer something comparable to crop insurance regarding healthy grassland practices, offering support for land managers to try new techniques. “We’re not just looking at this from the hunter or rancher perspective, but also the rural community perspective. Grasslands are for everyone in the state,” says Kahler. “Through the initiative, we bring partners together to say, ‘What can we do to support those who want to keep their grasslands as grasslands, or even those with croplands that say- I have this marginal land, I want to revert it to grass, how can I do this? How do I enrich this as a habitat for wildlife, how can I find economic benefit from this land?’ Through the initiative, we’re hoping the partners can collaborate and address some of those questions for landowners.” Long-term Projects and Goals Since the South Dakota Grasslands Initiative is a network of partners, collaborative communication is central. The first quarterly partner meeting of the SDGI was held in October, and the second in January. These meetings are spaces where anybody who identifies as a grassland partner in South Dakota can contribute and share what they are actively working towards, what they aim to do, and what support they can provide. Moving forward, the SDGI is organizing its first grasslands summit in March of 2024. The summit will be a collection of producers of all kinds, anybody with a vested interest in grassland health, gathering for education and productive discussion. The South Dakota Grasslands Summit will be held on Monday, March 18, and Tuesday, March 19, in Oacoma. This premier event will focus on opportunities, challenges, and the significance of the grasslands in South Dakota. It will offer something for everyone- especially those involved in agricultural production, ag finance, wildlife, community health, and natural resources. Attendees will also be able to participate in shaping the future of South Dakota’s grassland heritage. “Producers can hear stories from others explaining things such as, ‘Here’s how I added an enterprise, here’s how I made my grasslands more productive, here are programs available,’ and producers can then bring those fortifying ideas back to their operation. And even broader, even if financially one has no connection to the grasslands if they just value the grasslands or spend time there. Even if you just like going to take photos of grouse, come to the summit. We want to hear from you,” says Kahler. The summit is structured around a series of educational, social, and collaborative activities. Through the summit, even those who are on the periphery of industry or struggling with the designation of their land can have just as much of a voice as traditional partners. Furthermore, Kahler continues to utilize her background in agricultural education. For example, this year the theme of the national speech contest held by the Association of Conservation was ‘Working Grasslands, Why Do They Matter?’ Kahler saw this as an opportunity to not only encourage participation in the speech contest but also to distribute these speeches to high school teachers to bolster grasslands education in schools. To get more info or register for the Grasslands Summit visit: https://sdgrassinitiative.org/summit/ ____________________________________________________________________ Visit these “Growing Resilience Through Our Soils” information pages: 1. Podcast page for drought planning fact sheets, Q&As, news, podcasts and more. 2. Video page to watch videos of other ranchers’ journeys toward improved rangeland/pasture. 3.Follow Growing Resilience on social media: Facebook - Growing Resilience Twitter - @GrowResilience_ Instagram - growingresilience.sd 4. Our homepage: www.growingresiliencesd.com

As the world grapples with the challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss, the preservation of our natural landscapes has never been more critical. In a recent enlightening episode of our podcast, we had the privilege of hosting Tate Lantz, the Assistant State Conservationist for Field Offices in Rapid City, SD. Lantz, with his extensive background in range science and conservation, shared valuable insights into the Central Grasslands Roadmap, an ambitious initiative aimed at preserving one of America’s most vital ecosystems. To listen to the full podcast, CLICK HERE. Tate Lantz’s journey is deeply rooted in the grasslands of South Dakota. Growing up on a cattle ranch near Winner, SD, he developed an intrinsic connection with the land that shaped his career path. After majoring in range science at South Dakota State University, Lantz embarked on a career with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), where he now plays a pivotal role in grassland conservation. The Central Grasslands Roadmap, spearheaded by the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, represents a significant effort to address the alarming loss of grasslands. Over the past decade, the United States alone has seen the disappearance of approximately 50 million acres of grasslands – an area roughly the size of South Dakota. This loss not only threatens biodiversity, particularly grassland birds but also impacts the carbon sequestration capacity of these ecosystems, a crucial factor in climate change mitigation. Lantz’s involvement in the Roadmap began in 2019, focusing on fostering collaboration and partnerships to preserve grasslands. The initiative spans across three countries – Mexico, the United States, and Canada – and encompasses 600 million acres. It brings together various sectors, including indigenous communities, landowners, ranchers, federal agencies, industry, state and provincial agencies, NGOs, academia, and foundations, highlighting the need for diverse and inclusive conservation strategies. One of the most compelling aspects of the Roadmap is its commitment to economic sustainability. In South Dakota, the initiative focuses on making grassland farming economically viable, recognizing the interconnectedness of environmental health and economic resilience. This approach includes exploring innovative solutions like carbon credit systems and educating producers on sustainable management practices that enhance biodiversity and productivity. The challenges facing South Dakota's grasslands are significant. Urban sprawl, agricultural conversion, and tree encroachment continue to threaten these ecosystems. However, the Roadmap’s comprehensive strategy, which emphasizes community involvement and education, offers a beacon of hope. It acknowledges the critical role that grasslands play in our environment and the necessity of preserving them for future generations. Tate Lantz's insights during the podcast were both informative and inspiring. He highlighted the importance of the Roadmap in not just preserving grasslands but also in fostering a deeper understanding of their value. The initiative goes beyond conservation; it's about transforming the way we view and interact with our natural landscapes. It's a story of hope, collaboration, and the potential for positive change. As we continue to navigate the complexities of environmental conservation, the Central Grasslands Roadmap stands as a testament to what can be achieved through collective effort and innovative thinking. Tate Lantz’s perspective sheds light on the challenges and opportunities ahead, reminding us of the critical role each of us plays in safeguarding our planet's ecosystems. Stay tuned for more discussions on grassland conservation and the roadmap's impact across North America. The preservation of our grasslands is not just an environmental issue; it's a matter of our survival and the legacy we leave for future generations. Let's join forces, as Tate Lantz and many others have, to ensure that these vital ecosystems continue to thrive. To listen to the full podcast, CLICK HERE. Useful Links: Central Grasslands Roadmap Home page: https://www.grasslandsroadmap.org/ Our recommendation for understanding the roadmap: Roadmap Executive Summary ____________________________________________________________________ Visit these “Growing Resilience Through Our Soils” information pages: 1. Podcast page for drought planning fact sheets, Q&As, news, podcasts and more. 2. Video page to watch videos of other ranchers’ journeys toward improved rangeland/pasture. 3.Follow Growing Resilience on social media: Facebook - Growing Resilience Twitter - @GrowResilience_ Instagram - growingresilience.sd 4. Our homepage: www.growingresiliencesd.com

By Casidy Spencer Drs. Liz and Rick Haney are soil scientists living in Temple, Texas. The two met during their graduate studies at Texas A&M – Rick earning a PhD and Liz at the time, working her Masters. Leading up to this, Rick had worked with many farmers and seen firsthand how difficult the lifestyle seemed. “When I went to grad school, my main objective was to come up with something that would help [land managers] do something… Soil testing seemed to be the area where I could have the greatest impact,” says Rick. Developing the Haney Soil Test His first step was to investigate soil health tests of the past. He was shocked to learn that only 40% of the nitrogen applied ended up in the plant. When testing extractable carbon, he found that the tests didn’t monitor the soil respiration, the actual activity of the soil microbes. It became starkly clear to Rick that as a scientific community, ‘we’ve overthought the whole process”. When using harsh extractants like hydrochloric or sulfuric acid in the labs, soil doesn’t behave as it does in the field, which can result in ineffectual or skewed data. Similar to traditional farming practices, human technology was being overemphasized, whereas natural processes needed to come to the foreground. “We try to bring a little bit of uncommon sense to this work,” says Rick. Thus, the Haney test was developed. This test evaluates soil health more comprehensively than traditional methods, emphasizing three critical aspects: water-extractable carbon and nitrogen, the 24-hour CO2 burst test, and the H3A extraction method for minerals. By mimicking rainfall, Rick was able to organically measure water-soluble organic carbon and nitrogen, determining these chemicals’ levels in the soil. This way, the added phosphorus and nitrogen necessary to grow control plot yields could be measured. “What we look for in pretty much any sample is, at the very least, a 1:1 ratio of organic to inorganic nitrogen,” explains Rick. By discerning organic nitrogen levels, not measured in standard soil tests before, producers have the major added economic benefit of avoiding overfertilization. Microbes breathe, just like humans, taking in oxygen (O2) and giving off carbon dioxide (CO2). Rick realized that by quantifying microbial respiration, you can measure the relative health of their environment. As Liz expresses, soils move from dry to wet conditions throughout a day. In dry conditions, some of these microbes may die or shut down. When wet conditions return, microbes will reengage in activity and experience a big boost in respiration. “So by measuring respiration, you are basically measuring the [microbial] biomass in the soil,” says Liz. The name for the H3A extraction process derived from the names of the four who developed the method: Rick and Liz Haney, Liz’s professor Dr. Hossner, and a colleague Jeff Arnold. To develop this method, Rick started by taking the pH of various samples using common soil extractants. “What shocked me is that all the pHs were driven either very high or very low. So you run over the buffering capacity of the soil when using traditional extractants,” explained Rick. “In other words, its inherent qualities are out the window.” Thus, the H3A method uses a mix of mild organic acids as an extractant to avoid stripping soil of its natural qualities. This innovative approach extracts minerals like potassium, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, and minor elements, simulating the natural soil processes more accurately than traditional methods. The Impact of More Effective Soil Testing This new means of testing gives farmers and land managers hope for their soil and courage to make change. Gleaning more accurate insight on their soil quality enables farmers to confidently make adaptive, regenerative choices with their land. “I’ve had people say, ‘I wasn’t aware of this before, thank you so much for this educational opportunity, I now have hope that I can go home and actually implement the changes I’vewanted to,’” said Liz. “It just spreads and grows, and then they help another person. I think that’s what so great about soil health community in general.” The Haney’s ultimate goal is to try to move the needle, one farmer at a time, toward a healthier world. “Nutrient density and increasing the health of our plants and people is the ultimate goal once you improve the soil,” Liz expressed. “The quality of the food we’re eating is important, especially since people are suffering from chronic diseases that we didn't see 50, 60 years ago.” After retiring from the ARS, Rick continues his work as a technical director for a commercial soil test lab. After leaving a job in the corporate world, Liz now is co-owner of a company called RegenAg that educates and consults with farmers and nonprofits on their regenerative journey. Says Rick, “The biggest takeaway that I've had in the last 15 years is seeing farmers that had no hope, have hope.” To listen to Rick and Liz’s conversation with Buz Kloot and Joe Dickie, visit the Growing Resilience website at: https://www.growingresiliencesd.com/podcasts/episode/dde3b37f/56-how-dr-liz-and-rick-haney-are-reshaping-soil-tests-and-the-agricultural-world-by-following-natures-blueprint Please note a disclaimer on this episode: while the Haney test is a highly useful soil assessment, the NRCS still does not endorse one soil test over another. Producers and land managers should still consult with their local NRCS office to ensure that whatever assessment they employ meets conservation practice and program standards. To learn more about what Liz and Rick are up to, visit them at: http://regenag.com/web/ ____________________________________________________________________ Visit these “Growing Resilience Through Our Soils” information pages: 1. Podcast page for drought planning fact sheets, Q&As, news, podcasts and more. 2. Video page to watch videos of other ranchers’ journeys toward improved rangeland/pasture. 3.Follow Growing Resilience on social media: Facebook - Growing Resilience Twitter - @GrowResilience_ Instagram - growingresilience.sd 4. Our homepage: www.growingresiliencesd.com

For this week’s “Resilience Rodeo”, farmer and cow/calf producer, Brian Johnson, talks about a past of fighting against Mother Nature and how his experiences changed his mindset to one focused on working with her instead. Brian Johnson is a fourth-generation farmer who runs a diversified no-till crop and cow/calf operation near Frankfort, South Dakota with his children his and wife, Jamie. In the 80’s, Brian’s father first implemented no-till practices on their land to try to retain moisture. Over time, Brian observed that maintaining living root structure as well as planting and grazing cover crops are important counterparts to those no-till practices. When facing saline seeps, Brian champions perennials as a tool to work alongside Mother Nature and restore balance to the soil biology. 1)    What is the one thing you've done that has been most important to the success of reclaiming some of these salinity seeps? The most important thing we’ve done is probably change our mindset. Instead of fighting nature, we’re working with nature on those acres. We used to continually try to fight the problem and grow a crop there instead of allowing nature to grow a perennial there. That seems to be probably the most successful thing that we changed. 2)    Can you recall a moment when the light bulb went on for you that you realized soil health practices make sense or that you should change the way you were farming? I think it was probably a couple decades ago when we were still trying to crop a saline area in one of our fields. It would be dry on top, but if it got a little slick under that top crust for any reason, the wheels would spin and you might get stuck there with the tractor. So, you realize, why am I continually doing this every year? As you're sitting there waiting for help to come pull you out, the light bulb goes off and it’s like, maybe we need to do something different here. Maybe instead of planting corn and beans here every year it's a perennial that will fix the problem, so we don't have to keep losing money on these acres. Because they truly are not profitable. The data shows us that it's not profitable to crop those acres, the yield maps and the profitability maps show us that it's not profitable. If you put in a perennial, you’re going to be profitable on those acres because your inputs go down significantly. 3)    What surprised you the most when you started implementing soil health practices? I think what surprised me the most was that you could see a drastic change in just two years. Sometimes it takes longer, of course. But on certain spots where we planted the perennials, we could see that change very quickly in the span of two to three years. And not only do you see the growth of those perennials, but your stress level goes down because now you're not having to fight those acres trying to crop them. 4)    What would you say is the biggest misconception people have who are not managing their farming systems for soil health and resiliency? I think the biggest misconception is that you can fix the problem without a perennial. I think people try to change it just by installing tile and thinking that change alone is going to solve the problem or think that continuing to grow corn and beans but not tilling it is going to fix the problem. At the end of the day, you need living roots in the soil to fix that problem. And those living roots need to be perennials. 5)    Is there something you'd still like to do that you haven't yet done to improve salinity conditions on your land? What I’d like to improve with our salinity is to fix all of our acres. We still have spots that will show up from time to time. We know how to manage them now, but there is still a problem area occasionally when you have the right weather conditions and the wrong rainfall at the wrong time. Or the wrong crop in that field. Nothing’s ever perfect and we’re never done learning, but I'm always going to be trying to improve those acres for the rest of my life. 6)    What advice would you have for someone who is just starting to face their salinity seeps? I would say find somebody who has remedied some of those acres of their own, or talk to a technician in your NRCS office or a soil health professional, and they will help to lead you down the right path and give you options of how to fix that. There’s a lot of knowledge about how to fix these problems now, there's a lot more information out there available, so you don't need to reinvent the wheel on your own. Don’t be afraid to open your mind and ears to somebody that maybe has a lot of expertise in that area and can help you fix it and give you a lot of options for your farm. There’s a lot of organizations that have taken a role in trying to fix this problem now, they’re working together collaboratively. Every Acre Counts is a great tool for producers to highlight the acres that they need to change. There’s Pheasants Forever or Ducks Unlimited and a lot of other soil health organizations that are out there and we all have the same goal: to do what’s best for the soil and for the land, but what’s best for the producer as well. So, we’ve all got the same end goal. And it’s not just for the sake of the soil, but a lot of times it’s good for the wildlife as well, and that provides another opportunity for the producer. 7)    When you walk across your crop lands and your native rangeland, what do you look for as indicators of soil health? For me, if I can't see the bare soil, I know we’re doing something right there. At the end of the day, residue is insulating the soil from the sun and the wind, it helps prevent erosion on our farm and it helps retain the moisture. When we go back to the mid-80’s, the reason my dad switched to no-till was to retain moisture. Well, you need residue to help do that here in South Dakota. So you leave the cornstalks intact on the field, you grow a cover crop before soybeans, you grow rye so you've got a living root in the spring before soybeans, you've got a lot of residue and organic matter there. If I can see residue covering the soil, I feel good about my chances. 8)    Is there any change you’ve made that you thought would never work? When we first started out, our first test with rye was my wife’s garden. It’s probably no more than a forty-by-forty little plot, and because rye was not something you saw in this part of the world produced very much or as a cover crop, I had to see firsthand what it did to the soil but also how it helped control the weeds. From there we tried it on a few fields the next year, and within three years we were doing aerial application of a rye cover crop on a hundred percent of our corn acres in the fall that then go to beans the next year. In a span of three years. So that’s a big change. It was a little nerve wracking for my father because he viewed rye as something that would use up moisture when you wanted to save it. That comes from his experience of struggling with really dry fields in the 80’s. What we saw in the spring of ‘22 was a massive amount of rye cover crop in our field that was actually insulating the soil from the sun, and so that first inch of soil was moist. Then once you place the seed about two inches down it was perfect. So, the rye was helping us retain moisture in that case, and it wasn't utilizing any extra. My biggest learning experience was trusting the wife there. She knows what she’s doing in the garden, and I can carry those principles out into the farm and the crop fields. 9)    What are the signs that your land is resilient? I think we saw some of the signs earlier today when we put a shovel in the ground on a high-residue wheat field. We’ve been extremely hot and dry here this spring, way more than normal, and to see that amount of moisture that deep in the profile, it shows me that we’re insulating ourselves from the extremes of Mother Nature in a way, because we can retain so much water and that is usually our limiting factor here. If we can replicate that on most of the acres on our farm, it can take away probably the most limiting factor for crop production for us; water. It’s purely water. It gets me really excited to see that moisture retention because our land here can get really dry. 10) What does resilience mean to you? To me, resilience means being productive and healthy for years to come. And I think that’s what we’re creating on our farm, what my father helped create and what we’re taking to another level through a variety of cover crops and livestock on the soil. So, it's about passing it on to the next generation better than how we found it. 11) As a row-cropper, what’s in it for you economically to change things and start considering perennials? I think the first step for producers towards change is knowing your cost per acre. Some people do and others don’t. So that’s the first hurdle: are you tracking input costs at the field level and at the acre level? Because most people have the yield maps, but until you know your costs and you coordinate them with the yield maps, you don't know your true profitability on those acres. That's usually when the light bulb goes off for those producers. If you're not making money on those acres and it’s an every-year occurrence that you're in the red, you should consider doing something different. And if that change is a perennial rather than a crop, you're going to be more profitable, it's guaranteed. Because you're not losing money on that parcel. And at the end of the day, isn't our goal to be profitable as a business? So, it should be something to seriously consider. ____________________________________________________________________ Visit these “Growing Resilience Through Our Soils” information pages: 1. Podcast page for drought planning fact sheets, Q&As, news, podcasts and more. 2. Video page to watch videos of other ranchers’ journeys toward improved rangeland/pasture. 3.Follow Growing Resilience on social media: Facebook - Growing Resilience Twitter - @GrowResilience_ Instagram - growingresilience.sd 4. Our homepage: www.growingresiliencesd.com

This week on the “Resilience Rodeo”, Austin Carlson of the SD Soil Health Coalition shares his thoughts on the importance of educating yourself before diving into new practices for soil health and resiliency. Austin Carlson works with the South Dakota Soil Health Coalition, and with his wife manages both pasture and cropland near Garretson, SD. Farming was something he always wanted to do, but he struggled to get a foot in the door. For a while he worked assembling strip till equipment and teaching farmers how to use them. Through this work, Austin observed how expensive and labor-intensive conventional tillage can be. That got him started on the path to implementing soil health practices. Through attending soil health schools and the no-till example set by his father, Bruce Carlson, Austin is now an experienced advocate for soil health. 1)    What is the one thing you've done that has been the most important thing to the success of your operation? I think the biggest thing that’s been a success in starting the soil health journey was probably going to some of these schools. Just being able to start my farming career working more with the land and with nature I think was very helpful for my practice in the long-term than if I would have got to farming right out of college. I would have had a much more conventional mindset then and a larger learning curve, and I would have been more stuck in my ways if I’d learned these things 20 years down the road. 2)    Can you recall a moment when the light bulb went on for you that you realized soil health practice makes sense or that you should change the way you were farming? The time that the light bulb went off for me to get interested in soil health was probably 2018 soil health school, everybody there was so welcoming. The rainfall simulator was very eye-opening for me. 3)    What surprised you the most when you started implementing soil health practices? I think the most surprising thing about starting these new soil health practices could be the pushback you sometimes receive from local people in the community, people that haven't really learned about these practices. I make decisions, and sometimes they have been doing this a lot longer than me, and it’s sometimes a challenge when they think I should be going a different direction. 4)    What would you say is the biggest misconception people have who are not managing their farming systems for soil health and resiliency? I think the biggest misconception I see with the soil health system that a lot of people have is that maybe you’re lazier in your farming operation or maybe on a really fringe budget, and that’s why you didn’t till or use conventional methods. When you’re driving down the road and you see a no-till field, with stalks standing up and maybe cows out grazing, and you just drop in with the planter– I think some people see that as a sign of laziness, or that you won’t achieve the same yields as the conventional-till neighbor. But I find that to be false. You have to be more in tune with your land and make very wise management decisions for it to work. And the yields– I’m not a seasoned farmer– but from working with my dad and doing the little bit that I’ve done, I’ve seen that the yields are just as good. 5)    Is there something you'd still like to do that you haven't yet done to improve soil health on your farm? Something I’d like to do to improve the soil health on my farm would be to keep building that soil structure better. I’m transitioning some fields that were conventionally tilled and I can see a difference from my dad’s fields, who’s been doing no-till longer, versus this newly transitioned field. I have a little ways to go on building that soil structure. I think planting will get easier in time as we build the structure, because this spring it was tough. 6)    What advice would you have for someone who is considering changing their farming system to one that's better for building soil health? Some advice I’d give somebody who’s looking to transition would be to get connected with people who are on this journey already. The soil health coalition, the grassland coalition, NRCS folks, I have found them all to be very, very helpful and instrumental in me really buying in and believing in these practices. You really need to be connected. Because if you’re just making the change, and you’re still running in the same circles with people who are not interested in these practices, it can be kind of depressing and you might be tempted to go back to your own ways, and in that case, you won’t get to see the exciting parts of farming, I think. 7)    When you walk across your croplands what do you look for as an indicator or as indicators of soil health? An indicator I look for of healthy soils is to not have erosion. I can remember some of these hills after big rain, I mean, you’d almost feel kind of sick. Like knowing I had a part in creating these rills that are forming into little gullies. So now I look, after it rains, I don’t want to see any soil that moved. 8)    Was there a change that you’ve made that at first you thought would never work? I guess a change that I made that at first I didn’t think would work, I look back to when my dad was doing some of his first no-till corn, and I was in the mindset that probably that isn’t the best thing to do around here. I thought we needed some amount of tillage to warm up the soil and get the fertilizer placed properly. So, I was on that strip-till mindset. But I’ve definitely been proven wrong and seen a lot of success since. 9)    What signs are you seeing in your cropland that your croplands are getting more resilient? The signs I see for resilient cropland is the soil staying in place.  Sometimes no-till crops can look a little rougher or behind conventionally tilled fields early in the growing season, but as the season progresses, the no-till catches up and looks just as healthy, if not greater plant health than the conventionally tilled fields. Minimizing erosion is the key for me. Like last summer, we got a couple-inch downpour and I remember some of the neighboring fields, they had a bunch of soil wash into their ditch, even gravel washing off the road that came from some conventionally-tilled fields. In both of those occasions they had to literally dig material out of the ditch. By not having that around our fields, I think that’s a sign of success. 10) What does the word resiliency mean to you? Resiliency means to me to be able to withstand some of the extreme weather conditions. I think the upper Midwest is just a very unique area, you know, it can be really, really dry, it can be really, really wet. To have resilient soil that can sustain through those dry periods, and on the flip side, if you can filter that water and put it deeper in the soil profile on the wet years, it’s just a way more resilient scenario. Even just having cover over the soil surface to buffer that temperature. You’re not getting the high spikes of the high temperatures and then really, really cold drops because you don’t have insulation or anything covering the soil. 11) What indicators do you have that healthy soil practices also make sense economically to you? Some indicators of soil health that have improved financially for my farm, I would say, not doing any tillage has helped save a huge fuel cost. I’m young in my farming journey so I have to rent a tractor every time I need to do something. I need to pay for that fuel and somehow track the hours I’m putting on the equipment. If I had to do an extra couple passes of tillage, it would add up. Another thing I think about when I’m filling up the tractors with fuel is the total number of gallons that have gone through that pump on the fuel barrel. It’s just kind of eye-opening when you think about it, we could have shaved off a third or half of those gallons over the course of time if we had been in a no-till system earlier. So, when you start putting a dollar figure to it all, it adds up very quickly. ____________________________________________________________________ Visit these “Growing Resilience Through Our Soils” information pages: 1. Podcast page for drought planning fact sheets, Q&As, news, podcasts and more. 2. Video page to watch videos of other ranchers’ journeys toward improved rangeland/pasture. 3.Follow Growing Resilience on social media: Facebook - Growing Resilience Twitter - @GrowResilience_ Instagram - growingresilience.sd 4. Our homepage: www.growingresiliencesd.com

This week on the “Resilience Rodeo”, Bruce Carlson shares how water, going into the ground rather than running across it, was a big part in starting his long journey in improving his soils. Bruce Carlson has been dabbling in farming ever since high school. He went to school to be a diesel mechanic and worked as a service technician for John Deere before finding an opportunity to farm full-time. Since then, he has gone from a conventional minimum tillage and cow calf operation, to slowly toying with no-till soybeans in 2004 and exploring other soil health practices since. As of 2018, his operation in Garretson, SD has been 100% no-till. Bruce is a proponent of soil health but understands that every producer is on their own journey, and on their own time in learning what works for their soil, their budget, and what they may need to change. 1) What is the one thing you've done that has been the most important thing to the success of your operation? One thing I’ve done on this journey that’s been a big key, I think, is putting the cows into the cover crops, getting them that supplementary source to eat. 2) Can you recall a moment when the light bulb went on for you that you realized soil health practice makes sense or that you should change the way you were farming? I think the time that the lightbulb really went on for me was in 2018. We went to a soil health school, and they brought a rainfall simulator. We were able to see how much runoff there is in conventionally tilled land compared to no-till. What really impacted me was seeing what was absorbed by each soil when they flipped it over– in the conventionally tilled soil, the bottom was dry, and the no-till soil was moist. Sometimes we don’t get very much rain in South Dakota, so every drop counts and none of it should be running off. 3) What surprised you the most when you started implementing soil health practices? What surprised me the most was how we didn’t have so much runoff. One field in particular, if it rained hard, there would be a gully that would run all the way down to the end of the field, underneath the railroad track, and then back into another field of ours. Since changing our practices, we’ve seen a lot less water pooling and running off, and more water retention. 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 “it won’t work here”. People feel like they need to “warm up” the soil to make things grow, that tillage has to happen, and I think that is a misconception. Using the proper tools and methods, I think it can be done, you just have to change your mindset of what you expect and how to go about it. 5) Is there something you'd still like to do that you haven't yet done to improve soil health on your farm? I’d like to progress in interseeding corn; I’d really like to make that work consistently. And, I’d like to try planting green a little bit more. 6) What advice would you have for someone who is considering changing their farming system to one that's better for building soil health? My advice to someone who wants to start their soil health journey is to keep an open mind. Go to some of these schools– that rainfall simulator was just huge for me– so you can see for yourself what’s going on. Or talk to others that have tried it. Just know that you’re going to have to change some things, like how you used to think these things work. There’s going to be challenges. Just keep an open mind. There’s a lot of resources on the internet, and other producers that are willing to tell you what they’re doing. 7) When you walk across your croplands what do you look for as an indicator or as indicators of soil health? When we walk across our land looking at what has changed or what looks healthy, to me, if you look on the ground and you see earthworms, that tells me there’s a lot of activity going on below. Normally I’ve got my pliers with me, and if I shove my pliers into the ground and it goes in nice and easy, and I flip the soil out and it crumbles real nice, that’s my indication we’re doing something better than we did before. 8) Was there a change that you’ve made that at first you thought would never work? A change that we made that I didn’t think would ever work is planting into some of these heavier residues or planting into standing green crops. I would have never thought that would work, I would have never dreamt of doing that, but surprisingly, it works. 9) What signs are you seeing in your cropland that your croplands are getting more resilient? Signs that cropland is more resilient than it used to be, is that you don’t see the corn curling up quite as quickly. You know, it still will, but it seems like it hangs on better in this drier weather. Also, on the flip side of it, when it’s wet, it seems like the water goes into the soil, and we don’t have standing water or erosion problems as much. You can actually go out and walk across a field and the soil’s not going to stick to the bottom of your shoes. And, I feel like you could drive a tractor across it a lot quicker than something that was tilled. 10) What indicators do you have that healthy soil practices also make sense economically to you? Some of the indicators that have probably helped us in the pocketbook is definitely having the cows on the cover crops. We’re not using as much feed we did before, we have narrowed the window of when we feed hay, we don’t spend a lot of time hauling manure that we would if we had cattle in the lot, and fuel and time savings alone with the no-till have been noticeable. ____________________________________________________________________ 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 “Rodeo” this week, long time cow-calf operator, Frannie Fritz, doesn’t hold back in sharing her opinion that generating resilient soils is a process, and that you have to understand that it takes time to make things right. Frannie Fritz is a cow-calf operator south of Iroquois, South Dakota. After studying animal science and dairy production at SDSU, Frannie returned to the family operation and has been there ever since. Much of her land she has seeded back to grass, but she is always open to seeding new things simply to try them out. To Frannie, health below ground and the health above ground mirror each other, and she knows that you cannot have one without the other. Frannie is also an elected chairman for the Beadle Conservation District and represents South Dakota in the National Association of Conservation. 1) What is the one thing you've done that has been most important to the success of your operation? Make doggone sure that I have fresh water in every single pasture. Water is the most important nutritional need for my cattle. That’s the most important thing. Rotational grazing and fencing, planting everything to grass, that’s all important, but making sure I have fresh water is the most important. And it took me years to do. That’s one point I want to make about all this. Planting grass is a mindset completely different than a corn and soybeans mindset. Producers that are into corn and beans, their mindset is that you plant a seed, it comes up in maybe ten days. But if you plant grass seed, it might come up in three years, depending on the conditions. It’s a mindset. And if you’re not willing to change your mind, you can’t change your system. 2) Can you recall a moment in time when the light bulb went on for you that you realized soil health practices makes sense or that you should change the way you were grazing? There wasn’t a moment, and I don’t do things ‘right’, I do things the way I have to do them. I want to do better, everybody wants to do better, but not all conditions are perfect. I think there wasn't a specific time that the light bulb came on, it’s a process; working with all of these guys, gleaning information, learning from them, being around them. I wouldn't say there was a light bulb moment, I would say over the years it was just a gradual learning process. I’ve been trying to change things at my farm since probably the 80’s, and I’ve been in it too long to pinpoint the moment it all changed. Every year things change, every season things change. 3) What surprised you the most when you started to change the way you grazed? The amount of time and work that it takes, and it does take time and work. Anybody that tells you that some of this stuff does not take a lot of time, they either got way too much time on their hands or they really don’t know what’s going on. But I’m a single operator, I’m out there by myself, I don’t have help, it’s just me. 4) What would you say is the biggest misconception people have who are not managing their grazing systems for soil health and resiliency? Those guys are out of the business, pure and simple. Those who are stuck to their misconceptions are out of the business. This isn’t nice to say and I’m ashamed to say it, but it’s greed. A lot of improper farming is greed. 5) Is there something you’d still like to do that you haven’t yet done to improve soil health on your land? I want to get some more fences in. I want to reduce numbers. The water systems are pretty much done, there’s a few things on my mind. Fences mostly, and there are some grasses I’d still like to try. 6) What advice would you have for someone who is considering changing their grazing system to one that’s better for building soil health? Start small, ask all the questions you can, and don’t jump in whole hog. Don’t decide “hey, I’ve got this quarter, I’m gonna change the whole quarter”. Don’t do that. Just go slow, very slow. Ask questions. Go on tours. Get yourself as versed on the material as you can. I’m lucky, over the years I’ve gone into enough places, I know enough people that I can pick up the phone and call somebody when I have a question. I’m lucky in that respect. But, yeah, start small, start very small, just take twenty acres. It’s gonna take time. Get yourself in the mindset that things are not gonna happen this year. They may not even happen next year. It may be five years down the road before you see something. That’s just the way it is. It’s gonna take some time. It’s not going to be fast. 7) When you walk across your land, what do you look for as indicators of soil health? I see soil health when I see diversity. Whether it’s the little wild iris that I see that I didn’t know existed, or when I stumble across a doe with her brand-new fawn, or when I can go out and see the cows and calves all content. And everybody, whether it’s a little pheasant or a doe or my livestock, can walk up and get a fresh drink of water. 8) Have you made a change that you at first thought would never work? I came home to farm. Most people gave me a year. Said I’d be out of there in a year. That was in 1978. I was even apprehensive that I could make it in this. I made it out of college, but the one thing colleges do is they put rose colored glasses on kids, and you have to take those rose-colored glasses off to see what’s really going on. I had a choice back then of either coming home and trying, or mom was going to sell the farm. Pure and simple, that was it. If I didn’t try, I wouldn’t have known if I could do it. Humans like to be together, they like to be a part of a crowd. When you invest in soil health, you step a foot outside of the box. And when you step to the outside of a group, you’re taking a chance. 9) What does resilience mean to you and what signs are you seeing in your land that it is getting more resilient? Being there tomorrow, being there next year, being there in ten years. I used to do a lot of traveling, and I’d be driving along and all of a sudden see this cloud of dust; well it turns out it was soil blowing, in just a little breeze. My mother and my grandparents on my mother’s side farmed during the dirty thirties so I say there’s a lot of the dirty thirties in me because of what they had to do to survive. And they survived. Maybe not the way I am, maybe not the way their parents made it. But they made it. Resilience means being there tomorrow, being there next year, being there the year after. And every year is different, every day is different. You just gotta keep trying. 10) Between the principles of Rotate, Rest, and Recover; is there any particular one of those that sticks out for you? Rotate. Just keep them moving. I’m not where I should be with my operation, it’s a work in progress. But I would just say rotate because I’m renting a piece of ground right now to the GPA (Game Production Area), and it hasn’t had livestock on it for years– I’m talking many years. And there’s such a deep thatch on that thing that it’s actually snuffing out the grass. 11) How do soil organisms help your livestock and your pocketbook? If you don’t have them in the ground, you won’t have anything out on top. Many, many years ago guys used to fertilize with atrazine. And I believe the little earthworms didn’t like that. I was asking these guys about it and was apparently too stupid to understand. I said, ‘That’s killing the earthworms.’ They’d respond, ‘You don’t need them.’ You don’t need them? God put them in the ground for something! So, if you don’t have the livestock under the ground, you don’t have the livestock on top of the ground. Pure and simple. ____________________________________________________________________ Visit these “Growing Resilience Through Our Soils” information pages: 1. Podcast page for drought planning fact sheets, Q&As, news, podcasts and more. 2. Video page to watch videos of other ranchers’ journeys toward improved rangeland/pasture. 3.Follow Growing Resilience on social media: Facebook - Growing Resilience Twitter - @GrowResilience_ Instagram - growingresilience.sd 4. Our homepage: www.growingresiliencesd.com

This week’s “Resilience Rodeo”, we discuss soil health and resilience with Matt Hubers, who shares his personal experience from his own grazing operation, as well as his professional experience working alongside cropland producers as an agronomist for Ducks Unlimited. Matt Hubers began his career as a district conservationist for South Dakota’s NRCS and is now one of two agronomists at Ducks Unlimited, where he is currently focused on implementing the tenets of soil health on croplands that were originally wetland habitats for waterfowl. In addition to managing his own quarter of land and livestock, Matt has been working with Ducks Unlimited and their partner organizations to encourage diverse crop rotations and cover crops, alongside implementation of grasses and utilization of livestock to balance the salinity of the prairie pothole soils. 1) What is the one thing you've done that has been the most important thing to the success of your operation? Two things that I've done on my operation that's really changed things up is cross fencing and water development. 2) Can you recall a moment when the light bulb went on for you to change the way you were grazing? Well, the light bulb that came on for me to change the way that I was grazing was that I had been watching conventional grazing outside of my window for 15 years before we bought the quarter that we're on. I saw that the grazing distribution was horrible. I saw that the species composition was horrible and at that moment I knew there had to be a better way, there should be a better way. Now that I have the infrastructure in place, I see how happy and excited my cows are whenever I move them. 3) What surprised you the most when you changed the way you were grazing? What surprised me the most is that you can read all the books, you can go to school– but the one thing that you're going to realize is that not all the answers are there. You’ve got to work through it on your property for yourself, with your animals, with your amount of measurement you want to put into it and make it work for you. And you can't do that from a distance. You've got to walk across your land and you’ve got to see it. And the more you walk and the more you look and see, the more you'll realize that there's so much more to learn. 4) What would you say is the biggest misconception people have who are not managing for soil health and resiliency? The biggest misconception I’ve observed when it comes to land management is that people think you can't have soil health and livestock, that you can't have your cake and eat it too. But one operation complements the other and they work together to make it all work better. This entire land that we're sitting on, the land that we drive across, the soil that we walk on, it is a descendant of the natural processes that we've interrupted. The goal is to integrate the processes that are naturally here instead of fighting them artificially. We want to work with them. 5) Is there something you'd still like to do that you haven't yet done to improve soil health on your own operation? I’d like to be much more dynamic with grazing, varying livestock numbers as conditions vary. That means when we have a nice wet spring with a lot of forage that you want to jump in and you want to increase your numbers. And then when we have a dry spring, you want to decrease. So, you've can’t be too tied to your own herd and your own genetics, which we all are, and you’ve got to be much more dynamic with the livestock. 6) What advice would you have for someone who is considering changing their farming system to one that's better for building soil health? The advice is that at the end of the day you've got to have a vision for what you want your land to look like. Hopefully that vision includes that you leave it better than when you got it. Have a vision for what you want and work towards it at your own pace and pull in whatever resources you need, take any advice, listen to any advice, and then use it. Discard what you don’t need. Make it work for you. 7) When you walk across cropland, what do you look for as indicators of soil health? When I walk across it, I don't want to have a litter layer that's too thick. I also don't want to have any bare soil. I want to have diversity in my plants, I want to have diversity in my insects, And I want to have diversity in birds, whether it's pheasants or ducks, as well as other animals. I have wetlands and I have uplands and I want those to look vibrant and healthy. That's what I look for; diversity, no bare soil, no erosion, no monocultures, no invasive imbalance. 8) Is there a change you made that at first you thought would never work? The change that I made is that I started burning, and it worked wonderfully. The reason I didn't think it would work is because the time window that we have for putting fire on the landscape is relatively small, and it's always a matter of drawing in enough resources so that you can do a safe prescribed burn. But gosh, getting fire back on that land is amazing, because if you have the stuff we're dealing with, and I've dealt with both professionally and personally, it can look like a desert of Kentucky bluegrass. You run fire across that, and you will see stuff that you never knew you had. And that's a thing of beauty. 9) What does resilience mean to you, and what signs are you seeing that crop- or rangelands are getting more resilient? Resiliency? It's a synonym for sustainability. What resiliency does– it's the ability to bounce back from adversity. And when you have a variable climate like we have and you have plants that are adapted for a certain climate, diversity breeds resilience. You never want to put all your eggs in one basket and have a pasture that's totally cool season or totally warm season because it's never going to work for you. 10) We always talk about rotate, rest, and recover. That's one of the mantras of GrowingResilience. Are there any one of those three words that you favor and why would you fight for it? Well, the thing is, it's a system. Rotate, rest, and recover; it's a system. And a lot of times when you take one cog out of that wheel, the rest of it stops turning. So when you say that, it’s as if I had to choose my favorite dog– I love them all equally. But I do think that if you're going to put me on the spot, my favorite is recovery. Give that grass plenty of time to recover. Because the one thing that's a very good indicator of which direction your grassland is going, is the amount of residual you are left with that next spring. If you overcorrect, that plant's going to try to find energy from somewhere and it's going to suck that energy out of its roots. In an overgrazing event, it's going to lose about 25% of its mass and then it has to make it through the winter and it has to bring up new shoots in the spring. Well, you know what? You don't give that grass enough time to rest and regrow and get enough plant material, you're going to lose it. 11) How do livestock relate to soil organisms in your systems? The biomass below the ground feeds all the microorganisms. They have a world where they prey on each other, where you have others that go around and eat the dead garbage. That process keeps your nutrients cycling. So those microbes underneath the surface are the driver of your entire production. Without them, you're going to be walking on a desert. And whenever you spray, whenever you fertilize, whenever you disturb it, you’re really hitting those microorganisms in the soil and you're setting them back and not letting them do their job. So let them do their job that they’ve been doing for thousands of years alongside grazing animals. The less inputs you have to put on the land when you've got the microorganisms breaking down all the detritus and then closing that loop, the less you depend on inputs. The pounds of beef walking on your topsoil helps it to stay in place, and your hydrology stays intact because every drop of rain you get sinks in. ____________________________________________________________________ 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”, SDSU Soil Field Specialist, Anthony Bly, shares about all the little moments that have come together to start and continually improve his soil’s health and resilience. Based in Sioux Falls, Anthony Bly supports South Dakotan’s in his role as the SDSU Extension Soils Field Specialist. Through a no-till approach and cover crop integration on his own family property, Anthony aims to find his niche within nature to heal soils while supporting his family’s livelihood in the process. 1) What is the one thing you've done that has been most important to the success of your operation? Success means something different to everybody. To me, success is feeling good about what you’re doing. Definitely the monetary part has to come along with that, but I really believe it will if you make the right decisions for our environmental resources. You know, I didn't realize this until I recently answered a similar question, but my dad saved this farm with conservation. He didn't know soil biology. He didn't know the importance of diversity. But, he knew we had a resource that we had to protect, so he set our farm on that road. My parents bought this farm in the early 80’s, when the ag. economy was going backwards and people were selling out. To buy a farm during that time was difficult, but right away we went into conservation practices– terracing, reducing our tillage, putting straight points on our chiseled plow, trying to make fewer passes. To me, that is success; taking your situation, adapting to it. People get so wrapped up in the annual basis of economic success, and I think that’s getting in the way of seeing the most important things. I believe that hard work and informed decisions will pay off economically. 2) Can you recall a moment when the light bulb went on for you that you realized soil health practices make sense or that you should change the way you were farming? Well, I don't know if there’s any specific moment, I think it happens often. I’ve seen it happen with other people. They would call it an “aha” moment; you can see it in them. I had really good mentors in college, and they really helped me to see things in a different way. It wasn’t all-of-a-sudden, it was bits-and-pieces at a time. Because this is really complicated, we’re talking about physical properties, biological properties, and chemical properties, and we’re all in this business to try to educate agriculture about each of those things, and that’s difficult. I can go to a moment in my career just a few years ago when I traveled the United States on a fellowship and went on a number of organized tours visiting other farms. I could say I had several “aha” moments on that tour. So, I'm constantly trying to pick up new things, learn new things and relate them to other people, and connect people through what I’ve learned. I think it’s so important when you see a producer struggling and you know another producer that has been through that, to connect them. That’s really powerful. 3) What surprised you the most when you started changing the way you farmed? I’ll go back to ‘91, ‘92, when we went no-till, the surprise was the amount of water that soaked into the soil rather than running off of it. That was huge. To hear other people in our family recognize that, and have people coming to the farm and saying, ‘There used to be a lot of water that comes out through here, what happened?’ Then you go to work explaining what we’re doing differently on this farm. So that was the most surprising thing, how the infiltration had improved, and we no longer saw a lot of water running off. The soil structure improvement, the biology, the microbiology consuming the residues; I even started to get concerned that we wouldn’t have enough residue to cover the soil. But it is working out so far. So yeah, I think that’s probably the thing that surprised me the most, that this microbiology can do powerful things. 4) What would you say is the biggest misconception people have who are not managing their farming systems for soil health and resiliency? We could drive around the community right now and I could show you some awesome-looking crops on fields that are tilled in fall and spring, and they just look great right now. On the other hand, some of our no-till crops appear to be struggling. But I think we’re learning more about biology, and that the conception of what looks good or what doesn't look good could be flipped on its side. I think a lot of people that are naysayers about what we’re doing look at what they see in the moment, and they don’t look at or beyond August 1st as much. That’s kind of sad to me because they're all in a hurry to get to cropping, get it taken care of, and then wait for the combine to enter the field. But there’s more to it than that. And so those are the kind of misconceptions I am trying to deal with. Because I hear from other producers the same story; ‘Why does this no-till field look a lot worse than that one over there?’ And I answer the question the same way each time, ‘Well, they’re burning up their organic matter, and the crop is responding to that.’ They all know that when they call, we just have to wait until August, and it will look better than those tilled fields. They all know that, but there’s still something in the psychology of all this that we’re in a rush to have things looking nice. 5) Is there something you'd still like to do that you haven't yet done to improve soil health on your operation? Oh golly, I’d really like to do some rotational grazing. My son pushed me hard to bring some sheep back to the farm, and we have a very, very small flock of sheep. So that’s one of these dreams that I think could be a reality, but I'm gonna need help. I'd like to rotationally graze sheep on either annual or biannual pasture situations and just move on that way. I think that would be the next big venture for the Bly farm. 6) What advice would you have for someone who is considering changing their farming system to one that's better for building soil health? Oh that’s easy, you’ve got to start hanging around the right groups of people that are like-minded, and you get that through the Soil Health Coalition, the No-Till Association, or other meetings where those like-minded people go. Then you start listening, you start asking questions, you try to trade phone numbers, you get on the Growing Connections app that the South Dakota Soil Coalition has. You start asking questions and you just build your knowledge, read books, search on the internet. Just get educated and it won’t end, it’ll keep going. I also think it’s important to establish goals, like what you want your farm to look like, and then establish some objectives. You've got to start somewhere and just go with it. That’s my biggest set of advice. 7) When you walk across your croplands, what do you look for as indicators of soil health? Well, I like to see the ground covered. But just because the soil is covered doesn’t mean it’s healthy. Soil cover isn’t a soil health indicator itself, but it leads to improved health and it indicates to me that we’re taking care of some things. I don't like to see bare patches; I like to see the protection. When we’ve dug soil pits and taken soil samples, you can see the mixing of the soil– the topsoil with the subsoil and the subsoil with the topsoil. And that’s nature’s way of doing tillage, of moving those nutrients around, of taking geology and making it soil. Those are the things that I key in on. As far as the crop side, I'm an agronomist at heart so I like to see even stands, I like to see good growth. I've fully recognized, though, that plants don't have to look good all the time to be successful, they don't. They're like people. They get sick and don't feel good but eventually the important moment is the end of the year. I like to see a good cover crop growing. In the last couple of years with the dry autumns it has been very difficult, even here in eastern South Dakota. I like to see different plants growing, and, being an agronomist, I like to grow different plants. So, just being successful with that in this situation is what I look for. 8) What changes have you made that at first you thought would never work? Oh that’s easy, in my graduate student days I was involved with a research project in a no-till environment, and that no-till corn-on-corn situation just looked terrible. That’s what kept me from adopting Dwayne Beck’s rotation that he talked about for a decade or more: planting corn-on-corn in a no-till environment. I had to get over that little anxiety, wondering, ‘am I going to be able to make that work?’ I’m educated, I have two degrees, but it takes more than that. It takes great willingness to take a risk. So, I did that, and it’s worked really well. In fact, this year my corn-on-corn is probably my best corn right now. It's hard to explain why that’s even occurring. I have an idea but even I don't know for sure. 9) What signs are you seeing in your cropland that your croplands are getting more resilient? Well, we talked earlier about nutrient cycling and the fact that the biology on my fields and my soils are cycling residues very well. That’s a sure sign that resiliency is underway. I call that a fire, if you will, because it generates some heat, some temperature on a micro scale. We need to feed that fire a continued supply of carbon; we’re carbon deficient here. So, the first time I heard Dwayne [Beck] say that we should focus on carbon and not nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, I'd really thought he’d lost it. I was thinking, are you kidding me? We should be fertilizing with carbon? It was so radical. Such a thought-provoking statement. But I believe it to be true now. It’s absolutely true. We need those other elements– nitrogen first, phosphorus second, but we need them all. Carbon is the cornerstone or the foundation of how all of those other cycles function and work. There’s another “aha” moment. So, it's all about the carbon. 10) What does resilience mean to you? To me, it started when we first started no-tilling, and we stopped a lot of the water runoff. We stopped the majority of those gullies and rills, and I mean we had serious gullies that we would plow into with our small equipment and farm again. That soil was not resilient. It was going backwards in a fast way. Now we have improved water infiltration, we’ve built our soil microbiology, these soils are building again, we’re actually building soils here, I'm really confident of that. We have a great variety of different soil types, they’re all similar in nature, but some are more eroded than others. Even the eroded ones are turning around and coming back well, but the other soils are doing it more quickly. They're not all moving at the same pace, but I am impressed with the evenness across fields now. We used to have a huge discrepancy between yield on our eroded soils and yield on our depositional soils. That gap has closed. To me, that’s resilience: building soil, being able to overcome five inches of rain in an hour. Being able to stand that, that is resilient soil. 11) What indicators do you have that healthy soil practices also make sense economically to you? Well, I don't know the pocketbooks of many other producers, we can talk about what you have and don't have. We’re a family that doesn't have to have exceedingly nice things, but we like to have fun once in a while. Despite an off-farm income, this farm is contributing to my family’s well-being. We’re not sticking money into the farm. A lot of people have questioned me, saying that I can only afford to farm because I have another job. And I quickly correct them and say no, the farm is supplying income that I need to supplement my off-farm income. So, I guess that's a kind of gauge that we are going in the right direction. We’re not slaves to any corporation or bank or anything like that. We take care of ourselves, and I think that’s a good indicator of economic safety. ____________________________________________________________________ Visit these “Growing Resilience Through Our Soils” information pages: 1. Podcast page for drought planning fact sheets, Q&As, news, podcasts and more. 2. Video page to watch videos of other ranchers’ journeys toward improved rangeland/pasture. 3.Follow Growing Resilience on social media: Facebook - Growing Resilience Twitter - @GrowResilience_ Instagram - growingresilience.sd 4. Our homepage: www.growingresiliencesd.com

For the “Resilience Rodeo” this week, South Dakota’s Ducks Unlimited manager of conservation, Bruce Toay talks about the overlap in importance of wetlands and cropland in the prairie pothole region, and that fostering the health of soil and wildlife can easily go hand-in-hand. Bruce Toay is the manager of conservation programs for Ducks Unlimited in South Dakota. Ducks Unlimited is a nonprofit organization partnered with the USDA to focus on conserving wetland and grassland habitat for waterfowl. Bruce champions the use of livestock to regenerate land and emphasizes the importance, not only to waterbirds, of preserving natural habitats and landscapes. He encourages the use of perennial grasses and adaptive strategies in order to regenerate perpetually degraded land, such as the saline seep areas in South Dakota. He currently cooperatively manages the Dale Demonstration farmland for Ducks Unlimited with the Beadle Conservation District, NRCS, and a cooperating tenant. The farm is an active demonstration where regenerative land practices are implemented and demonstrated for farmers of surrounding land. 1) What is the one thing you've done that has been the most important thing to the success of your operation? One thing we’ve done that has really been beneficial to the Dale Demonstration farm here is to try to think outside of our comfort zone– let’s try to invite partners in here and generate ideas that we haven’t thought of that might really speak to local producers– we have one shot to get them here and show them what works. 2) Can you recall a moment in time or time when the light bulb went on for you that you realized soil health practice makes sense or that you should change the way you were farming? One thing that I can recall that really opened my eyes was when I saw Dennis Hoyle give a presentation up in Ipswich. He talked about soil health practices on his operation; retaining livestock, adding grasses, reducing tillage, and not relying on drain tile. These were all things that Ducks Unlimited was interested in, and we thought– we need to learn about soil health and how this works for farmers. 3) What surprised you the most when you started implementing soil health practices? One of the surprising things that happened when we started focusing on soil health in croplands in particular was that it really helped us to have conversations we couldn’t have before with landowners. We became interested in not just the wetlands, but the land around the wetlands that farmers utilize to raise income for their families. So it enabled us to have conversations with farmers about what interests them and find a way to manage the habitats that also interest us. 4) What would you say is the biggest misconception people have who are not managing their farming systems for soil health and resiliency? One of the biggest questions we get frequently is, “Why does Ducks Unlimited care about soil health?” Well, we reached a point of realizing that to retain prairie pothole wetlands, we have to keep the landscapes healthy; and to do that we have to manage those adjacent upland areas. So, if we have healthy soils around wetlands, we have healthy wetlands and they remain intact. So that’s often a starting point for our conversations– the misconception that a focus on wetlands excludes a focus on soil health. 5) Is there something you'd still like to do that you haven't yet done to improve soil health on your farm? One of the things we haven’t done yet here that I think would be great to get on the Dale Demonstration farm is integrating more perennial species on some of those problem areas. I think we’re getting to the point of comprehending that those soils are simply not suitable for annual cropland production, so I want to try integrating some perennial species and livestock to find ways to raise income on those marginal acres. 6) What advice would you have for someone who is considering changing their farming system to one that's better for building soil health? Some advice I have for producers in the area that have a lot of wetlands and are interested in improving soil health is to reach out to partners. There are all sorts of organizations and agencies in South Dakota that want to help you get that job done. They have experience in your local geography, and they often have opportunities for cost-sharing to help start some of those new practices. So, don’t do it alone, and start out small to find out what works for you on your farm. 7) When you walk across your croplands, what do you look for as an indicator or indicators of soil health? When I walk across the demonstration farm here, the wetlands on this site are really ephemeral in nature and they’re kind of flashy– we call them temporary seasonal wetlands, because they only have water for sometimes a few weeks out of the year. Just last week, every pothole wetland out here was bone-dry because it was a pretty dry spring. You get an inch of water over the weekend and now some of those fill up again. That’s one of the problems we face when raising crops in these wetland-dense areas, so if we can continue to improve soil health on those adjacent croplands, it’s going to help the producer manage those wet areas. When the rain comes here in quick bursts, it soaks into healthy soil instead of running off and carrying sediment and fertilizers into the wetland basins. 8) What changes have you made that you at first thought would never work? A change that we’ve made or tried to make that we weren’t sure about was the integration of cover crops. You know, our growing season in South Dakota can be very small, particularly in a corn and soybean system there’s just not much time in the fall to integrate cover crops. So it’s been neat to integrate small grains and even try to change how we raise corn on the demonstration farm to provide new opportunities to integrate cover crops and improve soil health on this tract. 9) What are the signs of resiliency on your land? Some of the signs of resilience on the Dale Demonstration farm here ultimately are if we can manage those saline areas, if we can get some of those areas back in a condition where they are raising any kind of vegetation, if we can retain healthy wetlands on this site, and if we can have good healthy soils that raise the crops that our tenant needs to make a living. 10) What soil health and wetland health practices also make sense economically to you? A practice we’ve implemented here on the Dale Demonstration farm that financially makes sense to me is the integration of cover crops, perennial species, and livestock on marginal acreage to turn them into something profitable. 11) What does resilience mean to you? Resilience in the prairie pothole region means something unique– this region is really hot, really cold, really wet, really dry, we need land that can manage all of those scenarios, it’s got to capture the moisture when we get it, it’s got to retain that moisture, and we’ve got to have some habitat at the same time to make use of that water. ____________________________________________________________________ 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