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Root exudates from maize feed beneficial soil microbes, forming a protective rhizosphere that improves water retention and supports drought tolerance under diversified crop rotations. By Buz Kloot I’ve had the good fortune to spend time with Natalie Sturm and, before that, to follow the work at the Dakota Lakes Research Farm (DLRF) for more than a decade. Long before her thesis made the rounds online, what struck me was not just the data, but the patience of the body of work at DLRF itself — decades of asking the same simple question in slightly different ways: What happens when we let diversity do its work? That question resurfaced again recently in a lively discussion following a post about Natalie’s work and the podcast we recorded with her. The comments will sound familiar to anyone who spends time in soil health circles: debates about no-till versus tillage, roots versus trees, microbes versus mechanics, plants versus animals. Lots of passion. Lots of partial truths. What’s helpful is when we can step back and ask: Are others, in other places, seeing the same thing? Two recent peer-reviewed studies suggest the answer is yes. A long-term experiment in Canada 1  found that diversifying maize rotations reduced yield losses under drought by roughly 17% , even when no-till alone did not make the difference. The key wasn’t a single “silver bullet” practice, but the cumulative effect of diverse rotations that build soil organic matter and improve how plants experience water stress under dry conditions. More recently, a 20-year rotation experiment in China 2 showed that higher crop diversity dramatically increased maize drought tolerance at the seedling stage . What stood out was how  this happened: thicker roots, more stable rhizosphere microbial communities, and enzyme systems that didn’t collapse under drought. In other words, diversity didn’t just help plants survive drought — it helped the soil system stay functional while stressed.   That should sound familiar to anyone paying attention at Dakota Lakes. What Natalie’s work keeps reminding us — and what these studies quietly confirm — is that drought resilience is not something we bolt on in a crisis year. It’s something we grow, slowly, through intentional crop rotation diversity that feeds roots, microbes, and soil structure over time . Different continents. Different soils. Same direction of travel. And that, to me, is where the real confidence comes from. 1. Long-term rotation & drought resistance (Canada) Renwick LLR, Deen W, Silva L, et al. Long-term crop rotation diversification enhances maize drought resistance through soil organic matter. Environmental Research Letters.  2021;16(8):084067.doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ac1468 2. Crop diversity, roots, microbes & drought tolerance (China) Jia R, Chen M, Zhou J, et al. Diversified crop rotations strengthen maize seedling drought tolerance by modulating rhizosphere microbiota and enzyme activities. Plant, Cell & Environment.  2025;48:8604–8615.doi:10.1111/pce.70150 __________ 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

Dillon Co. SC Farmer, Sonny Price with our very own Barrett Self in a Freshly Picked Cotton Field By Buz Kloot When I think back to the first time I stood with Sonny Price on one of his Dillon County, SC fields in the fall of 2013, I remember the wind rustling in the just-harvested cotton plants, now dry, and Sonny looking out as if he were listening for something beneath the surface. He had just planted his first cover crop, Austrian winter peas as it turned out. Nothing dramatic—no perfect stand, no easy triumph. Just seed, soil, and a man with questions. In places like the South Carolina Coastal Plain, the land has a way of humbling anyone who believes they’ve mastered it. The sands run deep. The summers run hot. And the conventional wisdom, passed along like an article of faith, said: “ You can’t build organic matter here! ” Not really. Too sandy. Too hot. Too dry, people said. But Sonny never much cared for blanket statements. He cared about the land in front of him. In one of our interviews, he said: “We were told you can’t increase organic matter in the South… I couldn’t promote something I didn’t know anything about. I just needed questions answered.” At the time, we had just started a Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG), sponsored by the USDA-NRCS, with him and four other farmers in the southeastern coastal plain of South Carolina. What we wanted to see was whether cover crops could change soils over a three-year period in real farm ground. What Twelve Years Revealed Over the next decade, and past the three-year CIG, I watched Sonny and his brother, Tony, move through the kind of slow, considered experimentation that defines genuine stewardship. His rotations were already diverse: corn, wheat, double-cropped soybeans, cotton, and, where economics were good, winter peas, rapeseed, pink-eye peas. He introduced cool-season cover crops, then started working with warm-season cover crops behind the corn (harvested in August in the Southeast). He brought in chicken litter, then cut nitrogen back. He let go of phosphorus and potash altogether. And he parked the subsoiler—first by conviction, later by hard evidence from the field. When he quietly tried subsoiling a few spots again, “just to check,” the yields didn’t budge. The ground didn’t need it anymore. So the subsoiler stayed parked. By 2022, we had gathered eight years of soil tests, yield data, and input records to see what the land itself had to say. The full story is here: 👉  https://www.soilhealthlabs.com/projects/cotton-country-conservation What the data showed was what the fields had been whispering for years: Organic matter increased. Inputs fell: fuel, fertilizer, lime, and subsoiling. Yields held or improved. Costs dropped...significantly. And all of it happened on 6,300 acres of Coastal Plain ultisols, with sand, loamy sand, and sandy loam textures. This was not about a miracle product or a perfect recipe. It was about paying attention, year by year, and letting the land teach. For Those Who Still Say “It Won’t Work Here” Every region has its cautions—ours perhaps more than most. But Sonny’s experience stands as a quiet counterexample, revealing how much becomes possible when we work with the land rather than against what we think it is. Sonny didn’t begin with certainty . He began with curiosity , and the humility to test what he’d been told. Twelve years later, the land has given its answer. So if you’ve ever found yourself saying, “It won’t work here,”  I invite you to walk through Sonny’s case study. Not as a rebuttal, but as an opening. Because in Dillon County, on soil once written off as too fragile, too fickle, too Southern, Sonny found that it did  work. And if it worked here, we owe it to ourselves to wonder where else it might. __________ 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

Jesse Hall showing Joe Dickie Soils that were once in Wet Spots By Buz Kloot Back in July, 2016, Joe Dickie and I were standing on one of Jesse Hall’s fields in eastern Kingsbury County, trading the usual insults — he was picking on my hat, and I was picking on his camera angles — Jesse cut through the noise with a line that stopped us both: “We tried fixing wet spots with tillage for years. It never worked.” If you’ve ever fought those stubborn low areas — the ones that stay soggy no matter how many times you chisel, disk, or rotary hoe them — you know the feeling. The conventional wisdom says: “Open it up. Dry it out. Work it black.” But Jesse’s story doesn’t follow the old script. For decades, he and his dad did exactly what most of us were taught. They plowed every low spot, field-cultivated in the spring, and hoped for a miracle. It never came. The wet spots stayed wet. The crop drowned. And the weeds loved every minute of it. Then Jesse added something that, on paper, shouldn’t sound rebellious — but kind of is: a small grain. When he shifted to a three-way rotation with oats, his infiltration rates increased, his soil structure changed, and — almost unbelievably — most of those long-troublesome wet spots began to disappear, not from horsepower, but from biology. Meanwhile, Joe and I exchanged that familiar look — the one we’ve shared with several South Dakota producers this year — because once again someone was demonstrating a truth that runs against conventional wisdom: You don’t fix water problems with tillage; you fix them with biology. Jesse and his friend Jim added the next layer: livestock integration. Ten heifers. Five goats. A handful of polywire. And the kind of neighborly skepticism that turns into bragging rights once the grass comes back thicker. The goats — God bless them — "slicked up" everything the cattle didn’t want, including bull thistles stripped clean to a stick. Jesse laughed, telling that story. The man loves data, but he also loves a good thistle-eating goat. And here’s the real call to action Jesse wanted other farmers to hear: “Don’t be afraid to try something new. But if you experiment, do it right — and start small.” You don’t need to switch the whole farm to no-till next spring. You don’t need to buy a herd of cattle. You don’t even need to own livestock — your neighbor might be glad to run theirs on your cover crop. But you do  need to take one field, add one small grain, plant one cover crop, and give the biology a chance to work. The worst that happens? You learn something. The best that happens? The wet spots finally tell the truth — and they start to go away. So the real question is: If tillage fixed wet spots, why are they still there? Maybe it’s time — field by field, season by season — to see what biology can do that iron can’t. __________ 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

Dugan Bad Warrior Ranch, Ziebach Co. , , SD. Photo Credit: Joe Dickie By Buz Kloot When I first met Joe Dickie , it didn’t take long to know we were going to get along. We’d barely begun working together when the playful jabs started — the kind of good-natured banter you fall into only with someone who is both a consummate professional and  someone who loves to keep things light. SD NRCS’s Collette Kessler threw us together years ago for soil health work in South Dakota, saying, “You two need to work with each other.”  She wasn’t wrong. Joe took over the cameras, the color, and the sound — all the things I used to fret over — while I focused on the science and the admin. Somewhere in those early trips down I-90, the partnership took root. And somewhere in those same miles, something else happened: the prairie stole my heart . Once you stand in that early light and listen — really listen — the prairie reveals itself: meadowlarks tuning up, cattle moving against the horizon, wind combing through the grass. What looks empty from the highway becomes a whole, living world when you’re standing inside it. Over the years, Growing Resilience  has been fortunate to share Joe’s talents with many South Dakota partners. So when the South Dakota Grassland Coalition  releases a new Amazing Grasslands  video — produced by Joe and his team — we recognize the signature touches immediately: the quiet dawn shots, the honest conversations, the way people relax into their own story when Joe is behind the lens. That’s why this month’s film, Behind the Lens , feels so special. It offers a window into how these superb artists , Joe, Mitch Kezar , and Charlie Dickie  spend their days documenting South Dakota ranch families — long drives, early alarms, unpredictable weather, and more motel coffee than anyone should drink twice. But the real story is how people open up around them. A rancher may start the morning a bit stiff, unsure about being filmed. Then Joe — with his disarming mix of curiosity and humor — asks a question, listens deeply, and suddenly the conversation shifts. Shoulders drop. A smile breaks. Within minutes, they’re talking about grazing decisions, family history, and the deep love they have for the land. By mid-morning, you’d swear they’ve known each other for years. What Joe and his team understand — and what South Dakota teaches all of us — is that story begins with relationship . With trust. With showing up on someone’s land and seeing not just grass and cattle, but the generations of care stitched into every acre. That is why South Dakota steals our hearts.Not only for its sweeping horizons, but for the people who rise each day determined to keep those horizons alive. This month’s Amazing Grasslands  release honors exactly that spirit — the open gates, the shared coffee, the humor, and the resilience that define ranch life here. 👉  Watch the September Amazing Grasslands short film on the SD NRCS YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4QqSidPY58 If this steals your heart even a little, you’re in good company. It happens every time. __________ Visit these “Growing Resilience Through Our Soils” information pages: 1. Podcast page for drought planning fact sheets, Q&As, news, podcasts, and more. 2. Video page to watch videos of other ranchers’ journeys toward improved rangeland/pasture. 3. Follow Growing Resilience on social media: Facebook - Growing Resilience Twitter - @GrowResilience_ Instagram - growingresilience.sd 4. Our homepage: www.growingresiliencesd.com

SDSU Beresford Station, SD. Photo Credit: Randy Halverson By Buz Kloot This research summary expands on our earlier blog, “No-Till, No Yield: Are We Putting Corn Above Soybean Yields?” . After taking a short pause in posting, we realized we still have much more to share on the tillage conversation — and this piece offers a timely refresher before we dive deeper into the economics of rotation and soil resilience. Background Our earlier article asked whether focusing on corn yields alone gives a distorted picture of no-till performance. The evidence suggests it does. When soybeans and rotation diversity enter the equation, the economics shift — often in favor of no-till systems. No-Till Performance in South Dakota and Beyond At SDSU’s Beresford Research Farm , Pete Sexton and colleagues (2018) tracked 27 years of corn–soybean data under no-till and conventional tillage. Corn : Conventional tillage outyielded no-till by an average of 6.1 bu/ac. Soybeans : No-till outperformed by 1.8 bu/ac. But in 3- and 4-year rotations , the results reversed: No-till corn exceeded conventional yields by 1.3–1.8 bu/ac. No-till soybeans gained 1.4–2.5 bu/ac. These findings demonstrate that as rotation lengths increase, yield gaps close — and often flip in favor of no-till. A University of Minnesota  study (DeJong-Hughes & Vetsch, 2007) found similar patterns. Cool years penalized no-till corn by 9.6 bu/ac, while warmer years narrowed that to 4.7 bu/ac. When averaged, these outcomes align with Beresford’s long-term results. Rotation Diversity Pays In her 2022 M.S. thesis, Natalie Sturm  studied irrigated corn and wheat systems at Dakota Lakes Research Farm. She found that diverse rotations  — particularly those including small grains and legumes — improved soil structure, moisture efficiency, and total grain yields. These gains reinforce the conclusion that rotation diversity enhances no-till performance  and resilience. Economics and Farmer Behavior As Dr. Dwayne Beck  of Dakota Lakes puts it: “Farmers vote with their fields.”The persistence of no-till across the Northern Plains is a practical verdict — not a philosophical one. Growers stick with systems that offer a better return relative to risk , and long-term no-tillers consistently report reduced input costs, improved soil water use, and stable yields across variable years. Looking Ahead The next question is purely economic: What does a longer rotation really cost — or save — over time? Research from Brookings and on-farm trials across South Dakota suggest that extended rotations can actually improve profitability, even when corn takes a smaller share of acres. We’ll explore that in our next post. References Beck, D. (n.d.). Unifying Principles: Similarities Among Prairie Ecosystems.  Dakota Lakes Research Farm.DeJong-Hughes, J., & Vetsch, J. (2007). On-Farm Comparison of Conservation Tillage Systems for Corn Following Soybeans.  University of Minnesota. Pittelkow, C. M., Liang, X., Linquist, B. A., et al. (2015). Productivity limits and potentials of the principles of conservation agriculture.   Nature, 517 , 365–368. Sexton, P., Rops, B., Stevens, R., Williamson, G., & Sweeter, C. (2018). Long-Term Rotation and Tillage Study: Observations on Corn and Soybean Yields – 2018 Season.   SDSU Southeast Research Farm Annual Report.Sturm, N. (2022). It’s Not Just No-Till: Crop Rotations are Key to Improving Soil Quality and Grain Yields at Dakota Lakes Research Farm.  M.S. Thesis, South Dakota State University. __________ Visit these “Growing Resilience Through Our Soils” information pages: 1. Podcast page for drought planning fact sheets, Q&As, news, podcasts, and more. 2. Video page to watch videos of other ranchers’ journeys toward improved rangeland/pasture. 3. Follow Growing Resilience on social media: Facebook - Growing Resilience Twitter - @GrowResilience_ Instagram - growingresilience.sd 4. Our homepage: www.growingresiliencesd.com

Prairie Sunset. Photo Credit: Joe Dickie By Buz Kloot When we recently shared a reel on our social media, I expected curiosity. What I didn’t expect was the mix of affirmation and incredulity that followed. Some ranchers chimed in with pride — “We graze year-round in Saskatchewan.” Others shook their heads: “Grass is dormant in winter; it’s low in protein.” One asked, “Is there a point where you’re too far north to do it?” I read those comments and realized: this wasn’t just a question about grazing—it was about possibility. When we first spoke with South Dakota ranchers Pat Guptill  and Bart Carmichael , I understood why they never framed year-round grazing as a miracle. It’s not a trick or a fad. It’s a mindset. “We were doing everything ‘right,’” Bart told me, “and still the land didn’t look healthy. We had to do something different.” That “something different” turned out to be everything : how they grazed, how they calved, and how they thought about grass itself. Their story comes to life in the Year-Round Grazing video we produced in 2022 , filmed by our Joe Dickie , which captures the principles, methods, and results in their own words and on their own land. A Mindset Shift Both men started where most of us do — managing cattle and hoping the grass would follow. But Pat said it best: “We no longer look at our cows as our primary management. The cows are just a tool we use to manage grass.” Once they made that shift, everything began to change. Pastures that once seemed tired responded with new vigor. Fences went up, moves got shorter, rest got longer. Bart remembers subdividing a half-section into forty-acre paddocks during the 2012 drought. “It was all temporary fence,” he said, “but it worked. The grass responded.” The land began to breathe again. The Joy of Diversity Listen to Bart or Pat for more than five minutes, and you can hear the delight in their voices when they talk about plants. They don’t talk about grass as a single crop. They talk about communities  of plants — each one filling a role, each one feeding another. “Every plant requires something different,” Bart said. “We counted over a hundred different species in a hundred-yard stretch — grasses, shrubs, forbs. That’s what year-round grazing does: you hit it at different times, at different intensities, and then you let it rest.” That diversity doesn’t just feed cattle — it feeds the soil. When the cows trample and move, they lay down armor that protects the ground, feeding microbes that turn dying roots into living carbon. Pat has seen it firsthand: bare ground can take 3 to 5 years to recover after a drought, but a covered pasture springs back in 3 to 5 months. That same living fabric of diversity connects to much of what we’ve written before — in Do Cows Eat More Than Grass? , Diversity into Dollars , and The Range According to Bart . The message is the same: the more we expand our definition of forage, the more the land gives back. Calving on Grass: Timing with Nature When I interviewed Pat for the podcast, I finally grasped something I had never considered: the timing of calving is the key to making year-round grazing work. He explained it with the quiet patience of a man who has tested every assumption. “Mother Nature tells you when to calve,” he said. “It’s when the deer have their babies.” In western South Dakota, that’s late May — not March. Most ranchers calving in March have to keep cows at a body condition score of 5½ or 6 through winter, feeding hay and high-protein supplements for months. Pat lets his cows slip to a 4½ by March. “They look rough to most folks,” he admitted, “but by April and May, when green grass comes, they gain it all back — and it doesn’t cost me a dime.” It’s simple in principle, profound in practice: by aligning calving with green-up, the cow’s recovery and the land’s recovery become one process. Economics Rooted in Ecology When Pat started tracking his costs, the numbers told the story.Across the northern Plains, the average cost to wean a calf runs about $850 per head , and 80 percent of that is winter feed. Pat’s cost is roughly $450 . The difference is not a feed supplement or a new piece of equipment. It’s timing. Instead of burning diesel every day, he rolls out a bale of hay every two or three days — just enough for protein, not as a full ration. His cows harvest their own feed. “The tractor gets used once a month,” Bart added, “and the pickup burns two gallons of gas a week instead of two gallons an hour.” These numbers aren’t about thrift for thrift’s sake. They’re the arithmetic of harmony — fewer machines, less fuel, more sunlight captured by living leaves. Simplicity and Sanity There’s a kind of peace that comes through their voices when they talk about stress — or the lack of it. Pat has a way of distilling complexity into something anyone can grasp: “When I make a new plan,” he said, “I design it so a ten-year-old kid can run it.” That philosophy — low stress for people, low stress for cattle — has turned his ranch into a place of rhythm rather than reaction. The cows trust the people who move them. They’re calm, even affectionate. “If you’re stressed,” Pat told me, “your cattle will be too. It goes both ways.” Full Circle So can you graze cattle year-round?Yes — if you’re willing to listen. Not to a set of prescriptions, but to what your land is already saying. Year-round grazing isn’t about toughness or proving something to your neighbors. It’s about learning the timing of your place — when grass grows, when cows need it, when to rest, and when to move. For Pat Guptill and Bart Carmichael, that rhythm has rebuilt soil, restored diversity, and reduced costs. More than that, it’s restored joy. “We started making money,” Pat said. “And we started having fun again with our cattle.” That might be the best definition of resilience I’ve heard yet. Related Reading: Do Cows Eat More Than Grass? Diversity into Dollars: Rethinking What Forage is Really Worth The Range According to Bart   __________ Visit these “Growing Resilience Through Our Soils” information pages: 1. Podcast page for drought planning fact sheets, Q&As, news, podcasts, and more. 2. Video page to watch videos of other ranchers’ journeys toward improved rangeland/pasture. 3. Follow Growing Resilience on social media: Facebook - Growing Resilience Twitter - @GrowResilience_ Instagram - growingresilience.sd 4. Our homepage: www.growingresiliencesd.com

Classic Ray Weil. Lancaster Co., PA. Oct 2014 By Buz Kloot Note: We have links at the end of the blog under the header, Works Cited. There are a few conversations I’ve had in the past decade and a half that changed my life. Two of them were meeting Ray Archuleta in February 2010, my Atlas Storm encounter with Dwayne Beck on October 5, 2013. Another was the afternoon of October 2, 2014 — standing in a deep soil pit on Steve Groff’s farm in Pennsylvania, as Dr. Ray Weil drew our attention below the plow layer. What struck me wasn’t just the science. It was the profound idea that this soil-health revolution wasn’t driven only by breakthroughs in labs or university towers—but by the innovation, risk-taking, and persistence of farmers and ranchers  who have long known that soil is alive, and that the standard textbook definitions may often be inadequate for the work ahead. Farmers and Ranchers First In South Dakota (full disclosure, I am probably biased), from prairie ranches to row-crop landscapes, producers have been quietly, relentlessly shifting how they see the ground beneath their feet. They’ve walked fence lines, watched cattle tracks fade into cover-crop residue, and re-imagined how they manage their fields — trading tillage passes for living roots. Institutions like the South Dakota NRCS, SDSU, the South Dakota Grassland Coalition, and the South Dakota Soil Health Coalition have supported this transition — yes, cost-sharing from NRCS helps, but the true long-term change was wrought by education. These organizations work hand in hand to expand understanding of soil and rangeland ecology, and, in my opinion, the connection between NRCS field offices, soil-health specialists, rangeland specialists, and peer-to-peer support systems among producers is exemplary. Through field days, grazing schools, and on-farm demonstrations, they bring producers together with scientists, educators, and each other. These are not passive recipients of somebody else’s plan — they are co-creators of the possibilities. The Science is Still Trying to Catch up! Ray Weil’s work exemplifies how science was (and, IMOHO, still is) trying to catch up with farmer and rancher wisdom. His decades-long research at the University of Maryland Soil Quality Lab has explored nutrient cycling, soil organic matter, cover-crop systems, and the dynamics of deep soil beyond the traditional surface layer (“Weil — College of AGNR”).In one of his articles, he even called the cover-crop boom a “renaissance” — not because cover cropping is new, but because science can now document its many ecosystem services and profitability potential (“Weil, ‘Cover Cropping Benefits’”). For example, cover crops planted early, terminated later, and managed with minimal disturbance can dramatically reduce nitrate leaching, build soil organic matter, improve structure, and return nutrients to the surface in ways that conventional fertilizer-centric models don’t recognize (“Get More from Cover Crops”). A Revolution of Perspective In my interview, I began to realize: “The thing that really caught me as a scientist … the idea that this revolution happened not because of scientific breakthroughs per se, but because farmers and ranchers were doing things that were different, that were thinking outside the box.” Here’s what that means in practice: Instead of digging only six to ten inches, we peer deeper into the profile —the “plow layer” is only a shallow start. Instead of assuming tillage is the only way to relieve compaction, roots of species like radish (and other brassicas) become “bio-drills,” opening pathways for new roots and life (Weil). Instead of thinking of nutrients as locked in fixed pools and released only via fertilizer or mineralization, we see plants, microbes, and soil structure interacting to unlock and recycle nutrients in place (Weil). Instead of approaching soil as a chemical medium to be corrected, we approach soil as a living, shifting system where biology, chemistry, and physics converge. South Dakota’s Role in the Story While some of the earliest mechanistic research has been done in mid-Atlantic or humid zones, the lessons are highly relevant to semi-arid and fringe climates like South Dakota’s. The soil-health pioneers there are proving that context matters: the right species mix, the right grazing timing, the right cover-crop termination date, the right paddock layout. The role of SD NRCS and its partners is essential because they help tailor practices to local soils, climate, and enterprise models (think context). These farmer-led experiments — supported by local networks, extension, and NRCS — are exactly what Ray Weil spoke about when he said “the farmers in this case were ahead of the scientists.” Why It Matters This isn’t just about “doing something nice for the soil.” It’s about resilience, profitability, adaptation, and stewardship. The benefits: Better infiltration, less runoff, less erosion. Reduced fertilizer costs and reduced nutrient loss. More stable soil structure, more living roots year-round, more microbial activity, stronger resilience to drought or heavy rain. A shift away from the “fix the bugs with chemicals” mindset to “support the living system so it thrives on its own.” The Soil Health Revolution Then and Now In 2010, soil health and soil biology were often dismissed as fringe, or “pseudoscience.” And yet here we are, a decade and a half later, with a growing body of research, farmer-led proof, and institutional support. Ray Weil’s willingness to say, “Yes, the farmers figured things out first, and we scientists get to catch up,” is a mark of humility and a model for how research and practice should align. Now, we can see the results of a soil health revolution! In Closing The soil-health revolution is real — and it is real because people on the land made it so. Dr. Ray Weil’s work helps frame, explain, and amplify what the early adopters have already begun. But the strength of this movement lies in the generosity and collaboration that sustain it — the sharing of ideas across fence lines, the willingness of neighbors to mentor one another, and the steady partnerships among farmers, ranchers, and those who support them. In South Dakota, that combination of a pragmatic producer mindset, local institutional support, and an openness to think differently offers hope for a resilient, regenerative future. To every farmer, rancher, technician, NRCS staffer, and mentor who — even when the textbooks said “this won’t work” — simply tried it anyway: thank you. This blog is for you. Works Cited “Weil — College of Agriculture & Natural Resources.” University of Maryland College of AGNR , https://agnr.umd.edu/about/directory/ray-weil . Weil, Ray. “Cover Cropping Benefits.” The Earth and I , 2021, https://www.theearthandi.org/post/cover-cropping-benefits . “Get More from Cover Crops: Seed Early.” Soybean Research & Information Network , United Soybean Board, 2022, https://soybeanresearchinfo.com/research-highlight/get-more-from-cover-crops-seed-early/ . Weil, Ray. Interview with Buz Kloot.  Steve Groff Farm, Pennsylvania, 2014. Transcript file / mnt/data/WeilAudioPodcastMaster.mp3.txt. On soil science and the soil health revolution. __________ Visit these “Growing Resilience Through Our Soils” information pages: 1. Podcast page for drought planning fact sheets, Q&As, news, podcasts, and more. 2. Video page to watch videos of other ranchers’ journeys toward improved rangeland/pasture. 3. Follow Growing Resilience on social media: Facebook - Growing Resilience Twitter - @GrowResilience_ Instagram - growingresilience.sd 4. Our homepage: www.growingresiliencesd.com

Bart Carmichael. Photo Credit: Joe Dickie When I first met Bart Carmichael  in Faith, South Dakota, in October 2020, the air had that clear prairie sharpness that always comes before winter. He had a ready grin and a mind that ran faster than my pen could keep up. Bart doesn’t just talk about ranching—he tells stories about it, and somehow every one of them ends with a laugh and a lesson. My friend and colleague Joe Dickie , who wears more hats than a South Dakota wind can carry off, had met Bart earlier in 2019 while filming for the Amazing Grasslands  series. Joe came back talking about this rancher up near Faith, SD—a man who could make you laugh one minute and teach you more about soil health in the next breath. Joe loves the cold weather, so he was the perfect guy to go back out and film Bart again, once in January 2021 and again in February 2022, to capture his winter grazing and bale-grazing work. When I finally got to visit Wedge Tent Ranch  myself—on the drive from Lemmon down to Faith—I saw firsthand what Joe had been describing. The place rolls between sage and grass, a big open bowl of country where the wind never takes a day off. But here, against all odds, Bart has found a way not just to survive but to thrive. Scared to Death of Twelve Hours Bart’s story of change begins with fear—twelve hours’ worth of it, as he tells it. “When I first tried short-duration grazing, I was scared to death it wouldn’t last three days,” he told us, smiling at the memory. “I called Wayne Berry and said, ‘There’s not enough grass.’ Wayne said, ‘Will it last a day?’ I said yes. ‘Two days?’ Sure. ‘So you’re worried about twelve hours?’” That simple exchange was enough to get him started. Since then, Bart’s grazing days have nearly tripled , his harvest efficiency has doubled from 30% to 60% , and his ground cover has thickened even as his carrying capacity has grown. .“People think you’re fencing cows into a small space,” he said. “Really, you’re fencing them out  of the rest—so it can rest and recover. On any given day, we’re resting 95% of our place.” Nine Minutes to Simplicity At Wedge Tent Ranch, winter grazing isn’t complicated—it’s a matter of rhythm and attention. “It takes me about nine minutes to move a fence,” Bart said. “If you’re checking water anyway, roll it up, let the cows move. My banker came out once and timed me—nine and a half minutes. He said, ‘Who’d want to work eight to ten minutes a day like this?’” Winter in northwest South Dakota is a mix of wind, ice, and sudden change, but Bart has learned to make it work. “Running a tractor costs $150 to $200 an hour,” he said. “If I’m not running it, that’s real money saved.” His philosophy is simple: less machinery, more observation . Each move keeps the cows nutrient-balanced, the grass rested, and the ranch resilient. Diversity: The Prairie’s Insurance Policy For Bart, diversity isn’t a talking point—it’s the secret engine of the prairie. “There’s always something out there worth grazing,” he said. “Sub-shrubs like winterfat are 20% protein in the dead of winter. Even when the grass looks dormant, the roots are still alive.” That living mosaic has drawn new life to Wedge Tent Ranch. “There weren’t turkeys here when we moved in,” Bart said. “Now they roost in the trees. Deer live here year-round. We’re running more cows than before, but there’s more of everything else too. The whole system’s healthier.” It’s the same truth we explored in Do Cows Eat More Than Grass? —that diversity is nature’s design for resilience. Where scientists like Fred Provenza describe how animals use variety for nutrition and health, Bart shows what that looks like in practice: a living, self-healing prairie. The Adaptive Mindset “We moved here in 1993,” Bart said. “We started with four seasonal pastures. Now we’ve got 54 permanent ones, and we strip them into smaller chunks. We never graze the same piece of land the same way twice.” Working first with EQIP and later on his own, he built a permanent water system that lets him move cattle efficiently in any season. “My imagination wasn’t big enough when I started,” he admits. “I thought half-section pastures would be plenty. Now we’ve got 53-acre pastures, and every one has water.” That kind of imagination—growing as fast as the grass itself—is the hallmark of an adaptive mind. “Every time you think you’ve got it figured out,” Bart said, “nature throws you something new, and you learn again.” A Vision Rooted in Family As we stood on the ridge at Wedge Tent Ranch, the wind cutting across the draws, Bart looked out over the land and talked about what comes next. “My ideal future,” he said, “is that we’d be big enough that one of my kids—or maybe two—could come back to help. And then I could retire and do something different. But I love what I do, so I don’t see that happening too soon.” You believe him when he says it. Closing Reflection When Joe and I think back on our visits with Bart, what sticks isn’t just the impressive grazing metrics—it’s the man himself. The humor, the humility, and the unshakable belief that if you listen, the land will teach you. At Wedge Tent Ranch , Bart Carmichael has built more than a business model; he’s built a living conversation between grass, cow, and soil. He’s living proof that regenerative ranching isn’t about perfection—it’s about persistence, curiosity, and keeping things simple enough to let nature speak. As Bart likes to say: “Keep it simple. The land’s got the answers if you give it a chance to talk.” ______________________________________________ ______________________ Visit these “Growing Resilience Through Our Soils” information pages: 1. Podcast page for drought planning fact sheets, Q&As, news, podcasts, and more. 2. Video page to watch videos of other ranchers’ journeys toward improved rangeland/pasture. 3. Follow Growing Resilience on social media: Facebook - Growing Resilience Twitter - @GrowResilience_ Instagram - growingresilience.sd 4. Our homepage: www.growingresiliencesd.com

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

Pete Bauman In the Field In July's Our Amazing Grasslands   video , courtesy of SD Grassland Coalition, we marveled at the hidden value in so-called weeds — goldenrod testing out as rich as alfalfa, prairie clovers, and milkweeds that feed both cattle and monarchs. That story, framed by Joe Dickie's steady lens, left us thinking of diversity not as decoration but as sustenance. This August's Our Amazing Grasslands   video  features SDSU's Pete Bauman walking us onto different ground — sometimes his own pasture, land worn thin by decades of use. The thread that runs through them is not a quick fix, but the long, occasionally frustrating patience of grassland restoration. When the Prairie Talks Back When we posted that July goldenrod story on Facebook, the responses lit up like a prairie fire. Some were intrigued: "My sheep will hit the goldenrod, sunflowers, amaranth, giant ragweed first on paddock moves"   Others dismissed it: "I never saw anything eat goldenrod. I wiped it out with weed killer" A few added nuance: "You have to graze Goldenrod when it is young, six inches to maybe a foot high"   And plenty rejected it outright: "Sadly if you actually looked at grazed pastures you would see cows avoid it. Until you deal with that no cow farmer will plant it."   That chorus of contradiction is instructive. It isn't that the forage analysis was wrong. It's that context matters: species ID, timing of grazing, class of livestock, even regional traditions of what's considered "good" or "bad" forage. Pete's restoration work echoes that same lesson. Fire might be the great truth teller, but grazing is the long conversation. The Abused Remnant At one stop, Pete stands in what was once a dairy farm site, now overrun with Kentucky bluegrass, smooth brome, and thistle. The soil was never turned, but the natives had been grazed down and pushed aside until they hardly whispered anymore. Pete calls this "Phase Zero" — the raw starting point. Here, the tools are simple but demanding: rest, patience, and eventually fire. Graze too soon before a planned burn and the fuel vanishes; rest long enough and the brome shoots to four feet, laying down the firepower you need. Fire, in turn, reveals what still lives underground. But Pete is clear: if fire isn't possible, well-timed grazing in spring, followed by getting off before July, can also coax natives back into the light The Personal Pasture Later, Pete takes us to his own place — a remnant so degraded he could barely coax 1,000 pounds of forage per acre. "Brome, bluegrass, quack grass, Canada thistle — that was it," he recalls. For a while, he fought thistle with the backpack sprayer, growing bitter and weary. Then he shifted: rest, then fire, then more rest. Seed gathered from a small restoration plot, scratched into the ash by family and friends. Livestock brought in cautiously, on his terms. Now, after twenty years, the story is different. Big bluestem, Indian grass, blazing stars, prairie clover, echinacea — a quilt stitched back together, though never without thistle. The undesirables never vanish, but the natives take their seats at the table again. The Long Game of Management Across the sites, Pete circles back to the same refrain: choose your tools wisely!  Fire tells the truth of what's still in the seedbank, but it only works if paired with rest. Grazing can pressure cool-season exotics, but only if timed to give natives their window in mid-summer. Spray has its place, but spray alone won't bring back the prairie. And always, patience. A burn today might not show results for three years. A season's rest can feel like wasted forage until the natives rise again. "Sometimes it takes a few years for that plant community to talk back to us," Pete says. Through Joe's Lens Once again, Joe Dickie helps us see what Pete means. The camera lingers on smooth brome, on the surprising flush of bluestem, on the uneasy coexistence of thistle and sunflower. It's the kind of slow, attentive seeing that mirrors Pete's own message: restoration is not spectacle but steady work. Closing thought:  If July's lesson was that diversity has dollar value, August's reminder is that restoring that diversity demands time, restraint, and a willingness to listen. Between fire and grazing, rest and patience, the prairie still knows how to heal itself — if we let it. Some related blog work that we’ve done may be a helpful supplement to this, they include: Diversity into Dollars: Rethinking What Forage Is Really Worth: https://www.growingresiliencesd.com/post/diversity-into-dollars-rethinking-what-forage-is-really-worth Do Cows Eat More Than Grass? What Ranchers Are Learning About Weeds and Forbs: https://www.growingresiliencesd.com/post/do-cows-eat-more-than-grass How the Michalski Ranch Turned Marginal Cropland into a Diverse, Profitable Pasture: https://www.growingresiliencesd.com/post/how-the-michalski-ranch-turned-marginal-cropland-into-adiverse-profitable-pasture ______________________________________________ ______________________ 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

Some of Van’s Soils – Insets are Saprophytic Fungi that consume residue and mineralize nutrients (left), mycorrhizal fungi that live in Symbiosis with Plant Roots, exchanging minerals and water for plant Carbon. This discussion builds on our recent Facebook post about Van Mansheim’s choice to farm without fungicides—a post that sparked both encouragement and critique. Because the issue is nuanced, we’ve gathered peer-reviewed references (listed below) and included brief summaries of each study at the end of this document to provide additional context for those who wish to delve deeper. In late June, when airplanes buzz low over the wheat fields of South Dakota, most farmers know what’s happening: fungicide season. At $30 an acre, the spray feels like insurance against the invisible threat of disease. But on Van Mansheim’s farm, the planes pass him by. Since 2017, he hasn’t sprayed a drop of fungicide. Instead, he leans on a piece of wisdom he picked up from neighbor Rick Bieber: “Walk out in your field, look down at your feet. If you see soil, you’d better spray fungicide. If you see residue, you don’t need to.” It’s simple, but it runs against decades of habit. Residue keeps the soil from splashing onto wheat leaves, where diseases like tan spot and septoria can take hold. In Van’s system, heavy residue from cover crops and no-till protects the crop—and his bottom line. When Residue Helps—and When It Doesn’t Van’s test works because many foliar wheat diseases start at the soil surface. Studies have shown that raindrops striking bare ground can launch pathogens onto leaves, a problem that residue all but eliminates (Paul et al. 2005; Fernandez et al. 2011). But not every disease follows that rule. Rusts—stripe, stem, and leaf—are carried on the wind, traveling hundreds of miles before they settle into a field (McMullen et al. 2012). Fusarium head blight, too, depends less on bare soil than on whether wheat follows corn. In other words: residue matters, but it’s not the whole picture. The Whole-System Change That’s where the bigger story comes in. Van’s success isn’t just no-till. It’s rotations, cover crops, and livestock integration, resulting in a soil that teems with beneficial fungi and other “good guy” microbes. Healthy soils drain better, resist compaction, and favor “good guy” fungi that suppress pathogens (Sharma-Poudyal & Paulitz 2010; Pérez-Brandán et al. 2012). Insurance vs. Resilience Fungicides feel like buying insurance—you pay before disaster strikes. But true resilience is different. It’s not an annual premium; it’s an environment where disease can’t gain a foothold. That’s what Van is banking on: a soil system that reduces risk every year, without a fungicide spray pass. For farmers, the question isn’t whether fungicides are “bad.” It’s whether the system itself can be tuned to the point where they’re no longer necessary. Van’s fields (and indeed Dakota lake Research Farm’s fields) suggest the answer might be yes. The Takeaway Residue cover reduces splash-borne disease. Airborne diseases like rust may still require management. No-till alone won’t cut it; rotations, soil health, and microbial balance matter. Over time, a healthy soil system can shift the economics: less money to the co-op, more resilience in the field. Have you tried cutting fungicides? Drop us a note in the comments—we’d love to hear how it’s working for you. 👉 Read Van’s full story here: Growing Resilience SD – Building Living Soil References Fernandez, M.R., et al. “Crop Rotation and Tillage Effects on Tan Spot, Stagonospora Blotch, and Septoria Leaf Blotch of Wheat in Saskatchewan.” Agronomy Journal, vol. 103, no. 4, 2011, pp. 1321-1331. McMullen, M., et al. “Epidemiology of Rust Diseases in Wheat.” Plant Disease Management Reports, 2012. Paul, P.A., et al. “Effect of Residue Management on Splash Dispersal of Wheat Pathogens.” Phytopathology, vol. 95, no. 4, 2005, pp. 427-436. Pérez-Brandán, C., et al. “Crop Rotation and Tillage System Effects on Soil Microbial Diversity.” Applied Soil Ecology, vol. 54, 2012, pp. 24-31. Sharma-Poudyal, D., and T.C. Paulitz. “Soil Health and the Suppression of Soil-borne Pathogens.” Plant Pathology Journal, vol. 9, no. 4, 2010, pp. 179-190. Reference Abstracts Fernandez, M.R., et al. (2011) Crop Rotation and Tillage Effects on Tan Spot, Stagonospora Blotch, and Septoria Leaf Blotch of Wheat in Saskatchewan — Agronomy Journal Summary / Abstract-style overview: This study evaluated how different crop rotations and tillage systems affect foliar diseases of wheat — specifically tan spot, Stagonospora blotch, and Septoria leaf blotch — under Saskatchewan conditions. The authors compared continuous wheat versus rotations including noncereal crops, and tillage versus reduced or no-tillage. They found that wheat grown after noncereal crops generally had lower levels of foliar disease, and tillage practices influenced disease development, often interacting with residue levels and disease inoculum carried over in crop residues. Crop rotation, particularly avoiding continuous wheat, emerged as an important factor in suppressing disease. The findings suggest that residue management and cropping sequence are key to managing foliar disease risk in wheat systems. McMullen, M., et al. (2012) Epidemiology of Rust Diseases in Wheat — Plant Disease Management Reports Summary / Abstract-style overview: This review covers the epidemiology and spread of the major wheat rust diseases—leaf rust (Puccinia triticina), stripe rust (Puccinia striiformis), and stem rust (Puccinia graminis). The paper discusses how rust pathogens are dispersed, the distance their spores can travel, how weather influences epidemics, and how host resistance and disease management strategies shape rust outbreaks. It emphasizes that rust spores are airborne and can travel long distances, making local residue or soil management less effective for controlling these diseases once inoculum is present. The authors explore the role of weather, cultivar resistance, and long-distance spore dispersal in the development of rust epidemics, and implications for disease forecasting and intervention strategies. Paul, P.A., et al. (2005) Effect of Residue Management on Splash Dispersal of Wheat Pathogens — Phytopathology Summary / Abstract-style overview: Paul and colleagues investigated how different residue management practices influence the splash dispersal of wheat pathogens from the soil surface onto foliage. They designed experiments to simulate raindrop splash under different residue cover conditions (bare soil, partial residue, full residue) and measured how effectively pathogens could move from soil or residue to leaf surfaces. The study found that residue significantly reduced splash dispersal of pathogens compared to bare, exposed soil. This suggests that residue cover acts as a physical barrier, reducing the upward movement of soil-borne inoculum via splash droplets, thereby lowering the risk of foliar infection. The results support the idea that residue cover is a useful cultural practice to help suppress splash-borne foliar diseases on wheat. Pérez-Brandán, C., et al. (2012) Crop Rotation and Tillage System Effects on Soil Microbial Diversity — Applied Soil Ecology Summary / Abstract-style overview: Pérez-Brandán and co-authors examined how different crop rotation schemes and tillage practices influence soil microbial communities, with a focus on bacterial and fungal diversity. The study compared monoculture versus diversified rotations, and conventional tillage versus reduced or no-till systems, sampling soil microbial DNA to assess community composition. Their findings showed that diversified crop rotations and reduced tillage enhanced fungal diversity and promoted shifts in microbial community structure compared to simpler systems. In particular, more complex rotations and minimal soil disturbance favored beneficial fungal groups, potentially improving soil health and resilience. The authors discuss how these microbial community changes might affect soil-borne pathogens and disease suppression over time. Sharma-Poudyal, D., and T.C. Paulitz (2010) Soil Health and the Suppression of Soil-borne Pathogens  — Plant Pathology Journal Summary / Abstract-style overview: Sharma-Poudyal and Paulitz review how soil health management practices—such as organic amendments, cover crops, crop rotations, and reduced tillage—can influence the suppressiveness of soils against soil-borne pathogens. They explore mechanisms by which improved soil physical, chemical, and biological health can reduce disease pressure, including enhanced microbial antagonism, improved nutrient cycling, and increased activity of beneficial organisms. The authors highlight case studies showing that healthy soil systems can reduce the incidence or severity of soil-borne diseases by shifting microbial communities toward beneficial fungi and bacteria that compete with or antagonize pathogens. The review calls for integrated management strategies that build soil health as a long-term disease suppression approach rather than relying exclusively on chemical controls. ______________________________________________ ______________________ 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

Ray Weil and a Student collecting Soil Nitrate Samples down the Soil Profile Introduction: Beyond Erosion — The Scavenging Power of Cover Crops At the risk of quoting Ray Archuleta too much, I did spend time with him last week, and he reminded me that cover crops carry a stigma. He said that when he spoke to farmers about the benefits of cover crops, they said, “We don’t have erosion!” End of discussion. We have already touched on Dr. Ray Weil’s work in an earlier blog, Soil Compaction Fixes: Dr. Ray Weil on Deep Roots & Water. As I reviewed video from our October 2014 visit with Dr. Weil at Steve Groff’s farm in Pennsylvania, I was struck by how well cover crops serve as scavengers, especially of nitrate nitrogen. If that nitrate isn’t taken up in the cover crop in the fall, it will leach out of the root zone during the fall and winter. In this post, we take a closer look at what Dr. Weil said in that video — and what he and his students have published over the years — to understand more fully the remarkable scavenging power of cover crops. Cover Crops and the Hidden Depth of Nitrogen Dr. Ray Weil and his team have conducted detailed soil profile studies on mid-Atlantic farms, extracting soil samples down to depths of 7½ feet (≈2.3 meters). Their findings show that cover crops — especially forage radishes and mixed species planted after silage or grain harvest — actively clean nitrate from deep soil layers. Without cover crops, nitrate concentrations remain detectable far down the profile, poised to leach beyond the root zone and be lost to the producer forever. Under cover crops, nitrate levels deep in the soil profile are nearly zero. In fallow or bare treatments, nitrate concentrations of 5 to 15 parts per million (ppm) can be found all the way down — amounting to roughly 120 lbs of nitrogen per acre. The implication is clear: cover crops don’t just build organic matter, they scavenge nutrients, intercepting and holding nitrogen that would otherwise be gone. Weil’s work with Sedghi (2022) underscores this point: “ Fall cover crop nitrogen uptake drives reductions in winter-spring leaching ” (Sedghi & Weil). The study highlights how timely and well-established cover crops can significantly reduce nitrate loss, especially when planted early after harvest (Sedghi and Weil 2022). Another study by Hirsh and Weil (2019) documents large end-of-season mineral nitrogen pools in deep soil layers, showing that much of the nitrogen remaining after harvest isn’t easily accessible unless living roots are present to capture it (Hirsh and Weil 2019). How Planting Date, Cover Crop Species, and Biomass Matter Not all cover cropping strategies are equally effective, and timing and species selection are critical. In Maryland, earlier-planted cover crops — especially those seeded soon after harvest or interseeded into standing crops — accumulate more biomass and develop deeper root systems, greatly improving their capacity to scavenge nitrate. Late-planted covers, by contrast, are less effective (“Cover Crops and Nitrate Leaching,” Wisconsin Extension). Forage radishes, in particular, have taproots that reach nitrate moving downward post-harvest, then winter-kill and release nutrients in time for the next crop (Weil and Notto 2018; Wang and Weil 2018). The takeaway: it’s not just whether you plant cover crops, but when and what kinds you plant that determine how much nitrogen you retain Weil and colleagues (2023) have even explored whether adding a small shot of nitrogen fertilizer to cover crops in low-nitrate soils could boost biomass and scavenge more N. Their conclusion: in many cases, the return wasn’t worth the input — a cautionary note for farmers considering that approach (Weil, Stefun, and Lewis 2023). Why This Matters to Farmers The nitrogen captured by cover crops isn’t just a soil health benefit — it’s fertilizer value. Weil’s work shows that cover crops can intercept 100–200 lbs of nitrogen per acre that would otherwise slip below the root zone. At current prices, that’s $60–120 per acre you don’t have to replace with synthetic fertilizer. Compaction and nutrient loss go hand in hand. When roots can’t push through tight layers, they can’t chase moisture or capture nitrogen deeper in the profile. Deep-rooted covers create those natural root channels, giving cash crops access to water and fertility that would otherwise be locked away. And while agronomists may emphasize nitrate leaching to streams or groundwater, the farmer’s bottom line is simpler: every pound that leaches out is a pound you’ve already paid for and won’t see again. Cover crops keep that nitrogen cycling in your field, where it can work for the next crop instead of disappearing. Where Do the Nutrients Come From? It’s worth stepping back to ask: if cover crops are scavenging nutrients, where did those nutrients come from in the first place? The answer is twofold. A lot of folks assume that most of the nitrogen in their crops comes straight out of a fertilizer bag. The surprise is how little of that fertilizer nitrogen actually reaches the plant — research shows much of it is lost to the air or leaches away in water. The real “bank account” for nitrogen is the sky overhead: the atmosphere is nearly 79% nitrogen gas (N₂). Legumes and soil microbes tap into that vast supply, turning it into forms crops can use. By contrast, nutrients like phosphorus, potassium, calcium, and the metals come from the slow weathering of rock already in the soil. And here’s where biology really matters: the more biologically active the soil, the more those rock-bound nutrients are made available. Roots, fungi, and microbes release organic acids and enzymes that free up phosphorus, potassium, and other minerals that would otherwise stay locked away. As Drs.Weil and  Brady note in The Nature and Properties of Soils  (15 edition) that the bulk of a plant’s body doesn’t come from the soil minerals at all. Carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen — derived from carbon dioxide and water — make up roughly 90–95% of a plant’s dry weight, with nitrogen adding another 1–5%. That means well over 90% of the biomass of every corn stalk, soybean plant, or radish root comes directly from the atmosphere. Soil minerals supply the rest — small in percentage, but essential in function. This perspective reframes the role of cover crops: not only do they scavenge nitrogen that would otherwise leach away, they also help cycle the mineral nutrients that rocks and soil biology slowly release. In doing so, cover crops connect the atmosphere above and the geology below into the living fabric of healthy soil. Conclusion: Rethinking “Clean” Soils and What We’ve Left Behind For years, the conversation about cover crops has been boxed in by one line: “We don’t have erosion.”  As if erosion control were the only reason to plant them. Weil’s work shows us something different: cover crops are not just about protecting the surface — they are about reaching into the soil profile, pulling back nitrogen that would otherwise slip away, and making it available for the next cash crop. When we think about soil fertility, we often focus on the top foot or so — the zone we sample, till, or fertilize. But a surprising amount of nitrogen and other mobile nutrients can be lurking — or leaking — deeper than that. Weil’s research challenges us to think deeper — literally — about where nutrients go after harvest and how cover crops give us a tool to pull back what many assume is gone. For farmers willing to look below the surface, cover crops offer a way to reclaim nitrogen that was never truly “lost” — just waiting for a root to find it. And with nitrogen prices where they are, that’s not just a soil health story — it’s money in the bank. Selected Works by Ray Weil (Please get in touch with us if you have trouble finding these references) Hirsh, Sarah M., Sjoerd W. Duiker, Jeff Graybill, Kelly Nichols, and Ray R. Weil. “Scavenging and Recycling Deep Soil Nitrogen Using Cover Crops on Mid-Atlantic, USA Farms.” Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment , vol. 309, 2021, art. no. 107274. Sedghi, Nathan, and Ray R. Weil. “Fall Cover Crop Nitrogen Uptake Drives Reductions in Winter-Spring Leaching.” Journal of Environmental Quality , vol. 51, 2022. Weil, Ray R. “The ‘Cover Cropping’ Renaissance.” The Earth and I , 22 Aug. 2023. Weil, Raymond. Spring Management of Cover Crops: How Termination Timing Affects Soybean Growth and Yield. Maryland Soybean Board Research Report, University of Maryland, 2024. Temple, Laura. “Does Fertilizing Cover Crops Boost Nutrient Capture?” Soybean Research & Information Network, 4 Dec. 2023 Weil, Raymond. Soil Health and Nutrient Flows with Enhanced Cover Cropping and Soil Management. Thriving Agricultural Systems in Urbanized Landscapes, 2025. Weil, Ray R., and Nyle C. Brady. The Nature and Properties of Soils. 15th ed., Pearson, 2017. ______________________________________________ ______________________ Visit these “Growing Resilience Through Our Soils” information pages: 1. Podcast page for drought planning fact sheets, Q&As, news, podcasts, and more. 2. 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