Early Corn under Drought Conditions By Buz Kloot This blog grew out of a recent conversation with three experienced practitioners from the South Dakota NRCS: Tanse Herrmann, State Grazing lands Soil Health Specialist; Marcia Deneke, State Agronomist; and Emily Rohrer, State Rangeland Management Specialist. The purpose of that conversation was simple: we’ve been watching drought conditions develop for some time, hoping for rain—but increasingly recognizing that hope alone is not a strategy. Across regions, the signals are aligning. In parts of the Southeast, dryland farmers are delaying or even skipping planting due to a lack of moisture. In South Dakota, similar patterns are emerging—particularly in the southeast for row crops and in the southwest for rangeland. The question that brought us together was straightforward: What should farmers and ranchers be doing right now? First Principle: Don’t Wait for Rain to Make Your Decisions Tanse stated it plainly: “Having a drought plan, a written drought plan in place with trigger dates and steps to take at said dates—that can’t be overstated.” And just as importantly: “If we’re going to protect the resource, we’ve got to start taking these steps.” That’s the tension every producer feels. It might rain. It always might. “It’s possible that it will rain… but those long-range forecasts are not indicating that we should think that’s going to happen.” Drought planning is not about predicting the weather. It’s about making decisions early enough that you still have options. For Livestock producers: Protect the Grass One of the most important observations from the field is deceptively simple. As Tanse explained: “They’re alive. They might be turning green a little bit, but that is it. They’re not doing any active growth.” That distinction—green versus growing—is critical. Even where showers have occurred, the moisture is often superficial: “We’ve been getting little showers here and there, but it’s only keeping the surface moist. It’s not feeding deep moisture.” Delay Turnout Marcia raised a concern many are already seeing: “Everybody’s going to grass now, and there’s no grass out there… that grass is getting behind right off the bat.” Her suggestion was practical and timely: “Maybe it would be beneficial to delay that turnout date.” This is one of the hardest decisions in a dry spring—feeding hay when grass looks like it should be ready. But delaying turnout may be the difference between maintaining pasture productivity and setting it back for the entire season. Consider Early Adjustments Tanse emphasized that this is not necessarily a liquidation moment—but it is a planning moment: “I don’t think it’s a liquidate-the-herd type of situation at this point, but we darn sure need to be thinking about other sources of forage or maybe just reducing the livestock numbers on the place in some capacity.” That could include: · Securing additional forage early · Leasing pasture · Reducing stocking pressure before conditions worsen Emily Rohrer also pointed to tools that can help connect people: “The South Dakota Grazing Exchange… helps connect folks with livestock to those with forages or vice versa.” Protect the Resource Tanse summarized the priority clearly: “Protect the resource, protect the pocketbook to the degree possible.” And the order matters. For Crop Producers: Plan for Flexibility, Not Perfection On the cropping side, Marcia Deneke emphasized the need to shift expectations early. “I think it’s critical that producers have a realistic yield goal… not necessarily an optimum yield goal, but a realistic yield goal for the growing conditions we have today.” Build in Flexibility Equally important: “Set yourself up for the ability to respond if those growing conditions change.” That mindset begins with something Marcia emphasized strongly realistic yield expectations under dry conditions. That decision flows directly into input management, particularly fertilizer. Practical adjustments might include: Plan for a realistic yield goal under drought conditions Split fertilizer applications rather than applying everything upfront Adjusting plant populations Rethinking input levels based on risk As Marcia noted: “We don’t have control over the weather, but we do have control over how much fertilizer we’re putting on, what our plant populations are… how much tillage we do or not do.” Plan for Multiple Outcomes Drought turns every crop into a decision tree. Marcia framed it this way: “If this crop doesn’t make it to harvest, what are my options?” Those options might include: Harvesting for grain Cutting for silage Grazing in place Transitioning to a cover crop Protect the Soil Wind erosion becomes a real concern in dry conditions. Marcia pointed out: “We’ve already shared pictures… of soil blowing and so trying to do what we can to mitigate that drought.” Practical strategies include: Establishing cover where possible Leaving residue Using trap strips “Leave some strips across the field… to slow that wind velocity across the field.” Outside the Box: Where Crops and Livestock Meet One of the most useful insights from the discussion is that drought often breaks down the artificial boundary between cropping and livestock systems. Crops can become forage. Livestock can become a harvest tool. Marcia noted: “There are people who… set aside a portion of their corn crop… to let the animals harvest that corn.” And Emily added that unharvested crops can still create value: “They could have someone come and graze it and maybe get some dollars or exchange or something like that out of it.” Tanse added an important caution for those harvesting forage: “Consider how little is left to protect the soil if you chop it for silage… maybe leaving a taller stalk… just to protect that soil over winter.” For Those Not Yet in Drought: Now Is the Time Not every operation is struggling—yet. And that may be the most important group to reach. Tanse made this point clearly: “Two-thirds of the state is still looking pretty good… now is still the time to build a drought plan.” There is also an opportunity in that position. “Now might be a time… to try something new… or do a full season cover crop.” Marcia echoed that idea from the cropping side: “In this… the profit potential may not be there… so now may actually be a good time to incorporate that new crop… into the rotation.” A Final Thought We often fall into the habit of waiting for rain to solve our problems. Sometimes it does. But more often, resilience comes from decisions made before the clouds gather. The message from this conversation was consistent: Act early. Stay flexible. Protect the resource. Because drought doesn’t just test a single season. It tests the system. Links to Useful Drought Resources Growing Resilience Drought Management Page SD Grassland Coalition Drought Planning Site (NEW) NRCS SD Range and Pasture Drought Tools South Dakota Grazing Exchange __________ 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

A few weeks ago, my friend Ben, Chair of the North Carolina Soil Health Coalition, gave me a call. Their coalition, inspired in part by the South Dakota Soil Health Coalition, has been thinking hard about nitrogen management heading into 2026. With nitrogen prices where they are, that’s not surprising. Ray Archuleta had recently spent time with their group, and as often happens after a Ray visit, something shifted. The conversation moved from how much nitrogen to apply to a deeper question: what is the soil already supplying? Ben asked if I’d be willing to help think through some nitrogen work on a few South Carolina farms. That conversation took me back to a set of experiments (2 experiments of 20 plotes each) we ran in 2016 and 2018 as part of a four-year corn–soybean–wheat rotation study. We weren’t trying to prove anything grand. After applying a base rate at planting, we simply varied nitrogen side-dress rates and watched what happened. What we saw has stayed with me. The Curve That Isn’t Linear In 2016, the response looked familiar at first. As nitrogen increased, yields went up. But not evenly (Image below). The first units of nitrogen did most of the work. By the time we approached what would be considered a 70% of the standard recommendation of 140 units, the curve had already started to flatten. Adding another 40 pounds of nitrogen only gave us few more couple of bushels. When we look at it as a percentage of maximum yield, the picture becomes clearer: You can see it plainly—the climb is steep early, then it levels off. Corn yield response to nitrogen: steep early gains, then diminishing returns—and in dry conditions, even reversal. 2018: When Water Has the Final Say In 2018, we ran two experiments—one on heavier ground and one on lighter soil (Image above). Same approach. But that year, the rain shut off in late July. Our collaborating farmer, Carl Coleman, later told me, “We were about one rain short of a really good crop.” That one missing rain showed up clearly in the data. On the heavier ground in EXP1, yields plateaued early On the lighter ground in EXP2, something more striking happened: the higher nitrogen rates produced more vegetative growth in the early part if the season, but when grain fill came, the system ran out of water. And the corn that had received less nitrogen performed better. Not because it had more nitrogen, but because it demanded less water. A Revelation About Nitrogen Years ago, Rick Haney shared something that stuck with me. He said it was a revelation to him that only about 30% to 60% of applied nitrogen is taken up by the crop. Think about that for a moment. That means 40% to 70% of the nitrogen the crop uses comes from somewhere else. From the soil, from biology, from organic matter cycling. The Nitrogen We Measure—and the Nitrogen We Don’t Most of us are familiar with the PSNT—the pre-side dress nitrate test. It measures nitrate nitrogen in the soil. That’s useful. But it’s only one pool of N. In our plot work (20 plots x 2 experiments), we typically saw something like: ~6 lbs/ac of nitrate-N ~30 lbs/ac of organic, potentially mineralizable N Five times more nitrogen in forms that the PSNT doesn’t capture. There are tests that try to get at this: The Illinois Soil Nitrogen Test (amino sugar N) Solvita’s labile amino nitrogen The Haney test (water-extractable organic N and microbial activity) Estimated Nitrogen Release (ENR) values (often ~20 lbs N per 1% organic matter per year) Each of these is looking at a different part of the same system, and while none of them are perfect, they all point to something important: The soil is not an inert medium. It is an active supplier of nitrogen. So What Are We Really Managing? If a crop needs, say, 140 pounds of nitrogen, it’s tempting to think we need to apply 140 pounds. But that’s not how it works. Some of that nitrogen is coming from: Organic matter mineralization Microbial turnover Residue breakdown Carryover from previous seasons (including, e.g., a soybean N credit) And in a year like 2018, the real limitation wasn’t nitrogen at all, it was water. A Different Question for 2026 So here’s the question I’ve been sitting with since that call with Ben: Are we trying to grow the biggest crop possible? Or are we trying to make the best nitrogen application/side dress decision with the system, the weather conditions, and the input prices we actually have? Because those are not always the same thing. If nitrogen is expensive—and it is—then it may be worth asking: What is my soil already supplying? Where does my response curve flatten? And what is truly limiting yield this year? Closing Thought We often fertilize for a nitrogen shortage that doesn’t exist while overlooking the water and soil conditions that actually limit our yield. And sometimes, the most profitable pound of nitrogen may be the one we never apply. __________ 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”, Candice Mizera shares her successes and failures in improving her grazing and cropland’s resiliency through goal setting and being flexible. On the Mizera/Olson family operation near McLaughlin, SD, implementing rotational grazing has been a central element to Candice and her husband’s adoption of regenerative agriculture. Candice noticed quickly how rotating animals offered the land one brief stretch of intended disruption and she was amazed to watch the land respond; seeing big bluestem come into the pastures, knocking back Kentucky bluegrass. When asked to speak on resistance to regenerative practices, Candice understands the skepticism and hesitation. Her father was skeptical when she began to install more fences and waterlines, but it’s gratifying now that he can see the results; green grass, even in drought. To Candice, resiliency means flexibility, profitability, and resourcefulness. Capturing and using rainfall, recycling the nutrients made available by cover crops, and utilizing adaptive grazing has kept her root systems intact. She also understands that resiliency in their operation is a collaborative effort: their family, their crew, their faith, and their willingness to seek opportunities to learn and try new things all play a critical role in helping restore soil health to improve the operation for the future Candice Mizera   1)    What is the one thing that you have done that's been the most important to the success of your operation?   Well, I guess my husband would say definitely getting married. And that's probably partially true for the most part. We've complemented each other more than we strain each other, I guess. So, we've gotten to grow the operation because of that, that we work together and we both kind of have different goals and strengths, so we've complemented each other that way. Bob worked in construction before we got married and worked 20-some years of construction as well as farming, and I’ve had three or four part time jobs to make ends meet when we we’re starting out.   We just kept plugging away or finding ways to pay the bills and figure out what we can do to improve the operations, efficiencies, and get more cattle out on the land to justify having more cows. When the cropland makes a lot more of a profit on a lot less acres, it's tough to justify spending 60% of your time on the cows when they're only 30% of the income. So, identifying those things, really looking hard at the numbers and what we needed to do to make each other happy, grow our operation, make it resilient economically, and improve and restore the soil so that it would pay us back were really important things for us.   2)    Can you recall a moment or time when the light bulb went on for you to change the way you were grazing?   I would say when I realized that our pasture was full of curlycup gumweed and seeing bare soil. I found out what curlycup gumweed was and that it's indicative of overgrazing and overuse. I would say that that was kind of a lightning bolt moment where we knew we just had to do something different.   3)    What surprised you the most when you changed the way you were grazing?   I would say the speed at which the ground recovers, in the pastures that we graze really hard early in the spring to knock back the Kentucky bluegrass, we saw the big bluestem come in that same year and fill up the pastures. It was amazing and really rewarding to see that kind of response in just a one-time treatment and a little sacrifice. It seems like the more intense and shorter the duration, the better the response.   4)    What would you say is the biggest misconception people have who are not managing their grazing systems for resiliency and soil health?   I'm not sure. I guess if they don't think it's worth the effort or think it's too much money or too much time or labor. I know that was where my dad was coming from when I told him what I wanted to do on his place. When we bought his cows and started implementing more fences and water lines, he thought we were crazy, but we knew that we had to contain the cows to a smaller area for a shorter time. That was the only way we could really do it with [minimal] labor. Instead of doing electric fences and hauling water, we needed to build the infrastructure, so we put in permanent cross-fences, permanent waterlines, and perimeter-fenced fields.   Just one person to go move cows every Monday morning was the goal, so that it was simple and on the schedule, and we just had to go do it. There was a goal, and it was an improvement. But then you realize, well, you need to be a little more flexible. They either need to go sooner or stay a little longer. There is a lot to learn, but it's been really rewarding to see [Dad] go out to the pastures now and see how much grass is left even in the middle of drought. And having more cows out there than he ever had*. That’s been really great to see and I’m glad he’s been around to get to see the improvements.   *The Mizera’s now have more than doubled their stocking capacity in the last 15 years.   5)    Is there something that you'd still like to do that you haven't yet to improve your soil health or your grazing system?   Yes. We'd like to increase diversity in crop rotations, try poly cropping, and improve and beef up our perimeter fences, and I'd like to bring in some sheep and do some multi-species grazing. We'd also like to break down our current pastures even more with a temporary electric fence and want to have a grazer hired that just moves the cows. Like, even if we just take the 160-acre pastures down in the eighties or eventually forties, you know, and move those cows. And I think honestly, that's when it's no longer going to be practical to have cow-calf pairs. That's where I lean toward the yearlings or fall calving just for the ease of rotational grazing. Yeah, I think that's the really big hurdle we have to get over because having little calves in the system does make it a lot harder. So that's the goal, just do it more intensely so that they're in there for a day or two or three instead of a week or eight or ten days to get more consistent animal impact.   6)    What advice do you have for someone who is considering changing their grazing system to one that's better for building soil health?   Well, I think I'd first advise them to get a shovel and see what they're dealing with, where they're starting from. Then maybe call in or see us and do a rangeland assessment survey so that they can find out where they're starting from. Then just make a plan based on what your goals are.   So, to improve water infiltration and aggregation, if that's what we're going for, implementing some sort of more management intensive grazing like adaptive grazing, something where you figure out the watering system, figure out your fencing, figure out the size of herd and how many acres you're looking at. You know, just figuring out a plan and talking to guys that have done it before. It's really phenomenal the kind of expertise and knowledge out there. I would recommend that they start talking to a neighbor that started on the system and look at their place.   7)    When you walk across your grasslands now, what do you look for as an indicator of healthy grasslands and healthy soil?   I would say leadplant and Western wheatgrass, and I really like big bluestem. That's really great. In one quarter that we just rented this year that hadn't been grazed for four years there was a lot of Kentucky [bluegrass] in that as well as brome. We hit that pretty hard, you know, for a short amount of time, and within that that summer there started to be some big bluestem and a lot of leadplant came in.   I just smile and just love going out in those pastures that are healthy, you know, where the big bluestem is growing in the creek and up the hillside and it's awesome because you know that those deep roots are bringing nutrients back up. So, there's just a lot of that that really helps to keep you going to see improvements. And then, of course, seeing green grass in the middle of summer, the end of summer. Of course we need rain, but keeping it vegetative helps.   8)    What change have you made that you thought would never work?   I would say the change that we thought would never work would have to be cover cropping after small grains. I hoped it would work, and it seems like it can if we can get the drill chasing the combines around and try to not plant too deep or too shallow. It's kind of a tricky deal, but we've gotten some really good cover crops and we've had a few kind of disasters where, you know, it just didn't rain or we got them too deep or too shallow and some species always grow better than others. But that's been really rewarding to see what we can grow and not hurt the next crop, and that we're actually recycling the nutrients and keeping the soil alive and we're not extracting too much water from the soil like we thought we might. I mean, that was always the thought; we used to think having summer fallow for a year was needed to stock up enough moisture for a crop. So, now to see that we can grow a cover crop and a cash crop, it's really rewarding to see that we can do that with our rainfall, and to learn that it takes a green, growing plant to keep soil alive.   And the animals definitely help pay for this, you know, when they can feed themselves in the wintertime that takes care of the hours on a tractor and fuel for the tractor and man hours and the hay bales. It’s a lot of cost savings for sure, as long as it’s less than a foot of uncrusted snow and we have hay on hand for heavy snow years.   9)    What are the signs that your land is resilient, and what does resiliency mean to you?   I would say to be able to withstand drought and still either grow a crop or be able to keep our herd together without having to cull because of lack of forage. That's really being resilient and being profitable enough to stay in business. To be able to manage it well enough and grow enough forage or crops to feed the animals when we don’t have rain. Resiliency means flexibility and profitability. And not having runoff, that's huge in my mind. If we can capture 90 plus percent of all the rain that falls on our land, that's what makes us very resilient.   10) When we talk about the importance of grazing management, we often refer to the Rs. Of the words rotate, rest, and recover, which one sticks out to you the most and why?   I like rotate. That's because without rotation you can't have either of the other ones. Getting the cows where you want them, when you want them, to accomplish the goals on your range or farmland, that's the key. ______________________________________________ ______________________ 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

Editor’s Note Over the past several months, Jim Martindale and I have been engaged in an ongoing conversation around the merits, limitations, and underlying assumptions of tillage and no-till systems. What began as a private exchange has grown into something we felt was worth sharing more broadly—not as a debate to be won, but as a conversation to be explored. Jim’s piece below reflects his perspective, particularly his concerns around how terminology and tool definitions shape decision-making in agriculture. We are grateful for his willingness to engage candidly on these questions. ______________________________________________________________________ by Jim Martindale, Guest Writer When “Vertical Tillage” Meant Something Specific Is anybody else as frustrated at the terminology about tillage and non-tillage as I am? To my point, which may come with advancing years in life, I remember when the subsoiling always resulted in the necessity to perform some kind of secondary tillage. When Ray Rawson created the Zone Builder subsoiler, which didn’t require additional tillage for a plantable surface, it earned new terminology. It became known as vertical tillage. There were other characteristic results associated with vertical tillage as well. They included largely undisturbed root systems and lack of mixing of the soil profile. For clarity, when I refer to ‘vertical tillage,’ I’m referencing the original Rawson-style concept—minimal horizontal disturbance—not the disc-like VT tools commonly marketed today. How the Marketplace Blurred the Meaning of Vertical Tillage Today the marketplace presents vertical tillage machines (popularly called VTs) that for all the world resemble a disc. The proliferation of differing labels has unintentionally clouded the concept of vertical tillage, making it harder for farmers to evaluate tools based on what they actually do to soil. I’m reminded of a request made of me almost two decades ago by a notable soil scientist to present a coherent definition of tillage to an international gathering of fellow soil scientists. It never happened because he was outvoted by the rest of the program committee. What Root Systems Reveal About Tillage, Temperature, and Soil Function This very old study done at Purdue University (table below) pointed quite clearly to the differences that types of tillage and no-tillage have on root system architecture in corn plants. Corn Root Weight by Tillage System (Purdue Study) The study cited (chart below) indicates that cooler soil temperatures during the root system development will result in root system distributions resembling no-till. Research and practical on-farm experience have consistently shown slower increases in soil temperatures in no-till managed soils. Corn Growth and Root Development Over the Season Taken from http://www.kingcorn.org/ So if we were to only look at root system development, we can begin to see the significance of the type of management of soil through tillage or absence thereof has on a crop like corn, and likely most other plants as well. These findings suggest that root architecture can be influenced by both soil disturbance and  soil temperature, so similar root patterns can arise from different management conditions. There are also secondary or resulting collateral conditions that impact the biochemical makeup of the rhizosphere. These influences of soil density and biochemical influences deserve a much deeper dive. Distorting the Lexicon of Tillage Tools By distorting the lexicon of tillage tools, we run a greater risk of making poorer choices, which can have serious negative impacts on plant performance. Shouldn’t the descriptor of a machine tell us something that reveals what it does to soil in its several aspects? Hasn’t the continued lack of a meaningful and coherent definition of what tillage of any kind or absence of tillage is really been impacting decision-making in stewarding our soil? Is it really as simple as what kind of a seedbed we have to plant into? Clear, shared definitions could help producers choose tools based on soil function—root development, aggregate development, gas exchange, and temperature gradient—rather than on terminology alone. ________________________________________________________________________ In the next post, we’ll offer a response to Jim’s reflections—continuing what we hope will be a constructive and ongoing dialogue.   __________ 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

Rising diesel costs are one of several pressures farmers are navigating this season by Barrett Self A South Dakota Story with Wider Implications A farmer from Mitchell, South Dakota, doesn’t usually make national headlines. But this spring, one did. In a recent Newsweek article , Mitchell-area farmer Chet Edinger described scrambling to secure fertilizer as global tensions disrupted supply lines. Within days, prices surged. Then, just as quickly, supply dried up. “You can’t even buy it right now if you wanted to,” he said. For those who spend time on the land, there is something familiar in that kind of moment. Not necessarily the geopolitics, but the feeling. The sense that decisions made far away have a way of arriving unannounced, right when the planter is supposed to be rolling. This is not just a story about one farmer or one season. It is a glimpse into how tightly modern agriculture is tied to systems that stretch far beyond the fence line. Diesel prices jumped sharply in a matter of days. Nitrogen fertilizer—already volatile—spiked as well, with some farmers paying significantly more than just months ago. In some places, it is not just expensive—it is unavailable. That last part matters. Because farming does not operate on flexible timelines. Crops do not wait for markets to settle. Spring comes when it comes. Family Farms Are Living Through Tight Margins For decades, agriculture has benefited from relatively stable and affordable energy: diesel to move equipment, natural gas to produce nitrogen fertilizer, and global supply chains to deliver it all more or less on time. But moments like this raise a quiet question: What happens when those assumptions no longer hold—even for a season? Not as a political question. Not even strictly as an economic one. But as a practical, on-the-ground reality. What changes first? Do we make fewer passes across the field? Do we adjust planting decisions? Do we rethink how much fertilizer we apply or where it comes from? or... Do we simply absorb the cost and hope for a better year next time? There is no single answer. Every operation carries its own soils, weather patterns, crop mix, and financial realities. But there may be another way to think about it. Systems That Require Less – Framing Regenerative Agriculture Some producers have been moving—gradually and often experimentally—toward systems that simply require less. Less fuel. Fewer passes. Less reliance on purchased fertility over time. In many cases, reducing tillage means fewer trips across the field, which can lower fuel use and labor. Those savings often show up first. Changes in fertilizer use tend to come more slowly. As soil structure improves, biological activity increases, and practices like cover cropping are introduced, some farmers report being able to reduce nitrogen inputs over time—sometimes modestly at first, and more substantially as the system matures. In the first few years of transition, fertilizer reductions may be modest. But as aggregation improves, microbial nutrient cycling increases, and cover crops begin fixing nitrogen and retaining nutrients more effectively, many farmers report significantly lower nitrogen fertilizer inputs, and some advanced regenerative operations report 30–60% lower synthetic fertilizer use over time. Not every farm sees the same results. Not every soil responds the same way. And transitions, where they happen, take time. But the direction is worth noting. Because the benefit is not only about cost savings in a given year. It is about reducing dependence on inputs that are priced—and sometimes supplied—far beyond the farm gate. Years ago, SDSU's Dwayne Beck made a simple observation that has stuck with us: the farmer’s real job is to harvest sunlight and water . Everything else—fuel, fertilizer, machinery—is meant to support that process. Somewhere along the way, many of those supporting inputs became central to the system itself. Reliable. Essential. Assumed. Until, occasionally, they are not. And in those moments, resilience becomes the real question. What parts of a farming system keep working when diesel spikes? When is fertilizer delayed? When supply chains falter? The systems that rely less on external rescue  tend to bend without breaking. That does not mean every farm should look the same. Nor does it mean every operation must change overnight. But it does suggest that building healthier soils, reducing unnecessary passes, increasing biological function, and growing more fertility in place may be more than environmental goals. They may be a financial strategy. They may be risk management. They may be what keeps family farms viable for the next generation.   Chet Edinger’s story in Mitchell, South Dakota, is not an isolated event. It is a reminder. The pressures arriving at one gate this spring may arrive at another tomorrow. The question is not whether agriculture will face more volatility. It will. The question is: What kind of systems are we building before that moment comes? What do you think? Are rising fuel and fertilizer costs changing how you think about your operation timeline—and could regenerative practices play a role in making farms stronger for the long run? __________ 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

How a first-time rancher is regenerating degraded cropland to healthy, resilient rangeland. Rangeland health, soil health, and the economic health of ranchers are one and the same, not mutually exclusive. That’s what James Halverson, Executive Director of the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association, has learned. Halverson also happens to be a passionate rancher, grazing cattle in the northern foothills of the Black Hills. In a recent podcast interview, Halverson talked about his journey from cropland to rangeland—and why he enjoys being a rangeland evangelist. “I feel that rangeland is like a red-headed stepchild that isn’t getting near the attention compared to cropland when it comes to the regenerative agriculture movement,” Halverson said. “We can apply the same soil health principles to rangeland—to increase stocking rates and production while increasing the ecological function and economics, too.” “We try to graze different pastures as short of time as we can, depending on where we can haul water. I’m a big believer in grazing pastures hard, but then giving pastures a good rest, giving them a season to recover.” “Moving into the middle of an older couple’s ranch, in the northern foothills of the Black Hills, we were lucky as first-time ranchers that they put no pressure on us to do things the way they did,” Halverson said. “Especially as we adopted soil health practices to regenerate degraded cropland. You can learn so much by observing the ground, watching how and what species the cows eat—really learning from the landscape and going far beyond just checking the cows,” Halverson said. And that translates to a better product for consumers, he believes. “Raising really good tasting beef starts with healthy soil, diversity on the rangeland and figuring out how to get cattle to eat it,” Halverson said. “I try to emulate and learn from people like Dr. Fred Provenza , Gabe Brown , Ray Archuleta and others who are on the ground and want to help producers.” Halverson subscribes to the slogan “Remember the R’s– Rotate, Rest and Recover” that several South Dakota organizations are promoting to develop resilience on grasslands. He said he’s seen first-hand the value of rest, which has contributed to the growth of his pastures. Here’s more of what Halverson has to say: “We’re fortunate to have a local seed company with outstanding guys that developed a 12 to 15 species mix of cool and warm season grasses, brassicas, alfalfa, sainfoin, tannins and others to meet our goals. Diversity in rangeland helps the soil, and cattle figure out how to flourish as well.” “Our experiment with bale grazing, putting out round bales weekly, is working well, keeping the cows from eating the pine trees that can cause some abortion problems. And we’re seeing some pretty cool results by not pouring cattle.” “We’ve pushed our calving season back, from late April into June, which has worked really well. Those calves rarely see a bad day, we’ve seen basically zero problems, and selling calves a bit later in the year has worked well, too.” The South Dakota State University influence: How South Dakota State University (SDSU) led to agricultural teaching and becoming a first-generation rancher. How his Colorado State University (CSU) graduate degree in Rangeland and Ecosystems Management entrenched his passion for helping other cattle producers become better soil and grass producers. His CSU graduate advisor, Dr. Larry Rittenhouse, taught him the importance of forward thinking and being open-minded. It really opened his eyes to teaching and doing things that can be tough for older generations to do—to adapt and continue to evolve our rangeland management.

On this week’s “Resilience Rodeo”, rancher Larry Wagner tells us about how utilizing both grasses and cover crops extends his grazing seasons and helps keep moisture in his soils. About 20 miles South of Chamberlain, SD, Larry Wagner has 1500 acres of mainly warm season grasses that have mostly been converted from farmland that’s typically seen in the area. When asked why he chooses to keep the land in grass vs. cropland, Wagner answers “I don't like messing with the chemicals, and there's so many more benefits with range for the wildlife, for people in general. You don't have the runoff with range land that you do on farm ground. To me it’s a better quality of life.” Larry’s management style and improved diversity have resulted in the Audubon Society counting 32 different bird species in his pastures, “the highest count that they’ve seen in this part of the world”. 1) What is one thing you done that has been most important to the success of your operation? Probably my most important thing to my operation is my grass and going to a lot of different seminars and different things. And being a member of the South Dakota Grassland Coalition has taught me a lot about grass and the benefits of it. 2) Can you recall a moment in time or when a light bulb came on for you, that kind of made you change the way you're grazing? The reason I've changed my grazing was, just like I stated before, going to tours and stuff. The results of doing that is you learn, and the actual scene is better than somebody telling you that “yeah, this works”. That's really made a big change for me. I guess probably the biggest thing is just seeing how high you can increase your production without any expense, so you have more profit. 3) What surprised you the most when you changed the way you were grazing? The thing that surprised me is how you can increase your production even in a dry year. What a difference it'll make. It's a lot to do with the soil because, as your soil gets better you have more organic matter, you retain more moisture. That's why it gets you dryer years better. 4) What would you say the biggest misconception is with people who are not managing their grass properly? We're all farming, and I don't know if this is the place to get in my soap box about the farming thing, but the problem with that is, so they get a bill for seed and fertilizer and fuel and insecticides and crop consulting. They get all these bills. So, they really concentrate on their row crop, and they don't on their grass. I'd like to bill them people for mismanaging their grass. If they got a bill that you're doing wrong out here for so much an acre, they'd probably change their ways. But the misconception is, “Well, it's just grass, it'll always grow”. Well, it always grows. It always gets green, but how much does it grow? And they said, “Well, there's no production out there and I'm going to sell my cows because there's no grass out there. I don't have enough grass.” Well, yeah, you don't have enough grass because you didn't take care of it. 5) If you could give any of those people some advice on where to start, to maybe change their mindset toward a better grazing system, what would that be? Probably one of the first things I'd do is send them to the South Dakota Grasslands Grazing School and learn about grass. And if they would go on some of these tours and see that stuff, see how it can be improved and really how easy and how cheap it is. There really is very little cost to doing the improving. 6) Looking at your current system, is there anything you'd like to do that you haven't done yet to improve your soil or your grazing system? Probably not a lot on the soil. The grazing system, I've planted it all to grass. I'd never do that again, because I think you need a cover crop in your rotation to extend your grazing later on to either fall or even winter grazing. 7) When you walk across your grasslands, what do you look for as an indicator of healthy grasslands and healthy soil? Well, you look at the soil, look at the armor on the soil. See if you got new species of grass coming. To me, one thing is really interesting in grass species, of their ability to predict weather. Some years you'll have a species that you got a lot of. Wetter or drier year, you probably don't see that as much, but then that year there's some other species of grasses growing good. It just always amazes me what a weather predictor they are. They know when they should be growing and when they shouldn't be growing. Also, a lot of birds. 8) Can you talk about any changes you've made that maybe at first you didn't think would work? Probably some of my biggest mistakes was my fencing. Went with like a four-wire fence, when you could just get by with electric fence. That's probably one of my biggest things. Because the rotational grazing is not a- you don't just start out in the spring and say, well, I'm going to do this, this, and this. The cows are going to be here and there this day, and this day, and this day. It's all based on weather, and you never know your rainfall, so you might want to change your pasture sizes. And if you have permanent fence, you don't change it. 9) What are the signs that your land is resilient? And what does resiliency mean to you? I guess what resilient means to me is probably like this year, when we're in a dry cycle, that still I have a lot of good growing grass. That the soil is healthy and has used all the moisture that we have received. 10) We have a number of words that begin with R, but three that we've settled on, Rotate, Rest, Recovery, that are really key to healthy and resilient range land. Which one would be your favorite and why? Probably recover is my most important because the less time they're on there all your grasses regrow with photosynthesis. Well, the more grass you leave, and the more time you have, the more recovery you'll have. Use that for the next year or later that year, you get your recovery back way faster. That's probably the important thing. ______________________________________________ _______________________ 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 James Hoorman - Posted on December 8, 2022 | Posted in No-Till Farming 101 Source: Ohio Country Journal No-Till Farmer recently put together a report: How No-Till Improves Land Values . This report put an economic value on conservation farming practices that improve the environment but also preserve our soil. While farmers own the land and have the right to farm it how they choose, long-term society has an interest in preserving the land for future generations . Here are some results of research on the benefits of no-till to society. An organization called Rural Investment for Protecting our Environment (RIPE) came up with $112 per acre as the value associated with no-till farming. This included $7 for increased carbon sequestration, $16 for improved air quality and human health, $25 for better water quality and $44 for improved soil nutrient management — all on a per acre basis. No-Till Farmer has been documenting farmer benefits for 25 years with farmers indicating they saved $25-$90 per acre in reduced production costs. A conservative figure is $30 per acre on average for reduced fuel, equipment, labor and nutrient (fertilizer) costs and higher water use efficiency, especially for irrigated farmland. Altogether, no-till farmers gain at least $142 per acre in economic benefits. This value represents $16 billion dollars of value to the 110 million acres in the U.S. that are using no-till farming practices. RIPE recently received an $80 million dollar grant from the USDA farm programs to develop Climate Smart Programs. They are doing a pilot project in four states: Arkansas, Minnesota, North Dakota and Virginia. RIPE pays famers up to $100 per acre to adapt conservation practices like no-till, cover crops and strip-till based on the stewardship value to society. They will compare these conservation practices to farmers who don't use conservation practices. RIPE will document changes in carbon sequestration, reduction in greenhouse gasses, increases in soil health, improved water quality and other environmental benefits (reduced flooding, reduced water usage, wildlife benefits, etc.). RIPE says that their recommended conservation practices would guarantee a fair return to farmers for their voluntary practices that deliver public benefits for clean water, land preservation, healthy soil, climate mitigation and other environmental services. This pilot program may be an indication of how USDA farm programs may be handled in the future, based on public service or benefits to society. North Carolina University also did an economic study comparing the value of no-till on land values. They used government satellite data, which is generated every 5 years to determine how the land is farmed and compared that to actual current land sales. Their results showed that for every 1% no-till in an Iowa county, land values increased $15 per acre. In other states, which covered a much larger area with more diversity of land productivity, the value was about $8 per acre. The researcher’s theory is that the more productive the land, the higher the benefits to no-tilling. Also, Iowa has much better information while the other areas had less information, and it covered a much greater diversity of soil types and soil productivity, so the results were about half as great. The value of cover crops was also studied but the difference was not significant, probably because cover crops are only used on about 3.9% of USA cropland. Is it possible that if an Iowa county or a county outside Iowa increased no-till to 10% to 50%, that could increase land values in Iowa by $150/A to $750/A or about $80 to $400 outside of Iowa? The answer is probably a big YES! Consider what happens when land is put into the government Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) for 10-20 years. That land is usually the least productive, highly erodible land, and the least profitable to farm. After 10-20 years of CRP rest in long-term grass, soil health improves, and the soil begins to heal. Many farmers seek out this CRP land because it becomes highly productive and highly profitable once the soil has been restored. As an example, for the same inputs, a soybean farmer may go from 30-bushel soybeans to 70-80 bushels soybeans (40 bu * $13/bu, 50 bu * $13/bu) or $520-$650 in increased value. For a corn farmer, from 120 bushels corn on highly eroded sloping soil to 180-200 bushels corn, a gain of 60-80 bushels ($6/bushel) or $480-$640 per acre. Current Ohio 2022 government conservation practices payments for a new farmer adapting no-till ($16.22/A), conservation crop rotation ($10.39/A), basic nutrient management plan ($6.98/A), precision ag pest management ($46.43/A), and cover crops ($51.05) total $131.07/A (No-Till Farmer, 2022). Conservation practices do pay , but it’s a long-term investment similar to investing in tile. It takes some time and patience to recover your investment. ____________________________________________________________________ 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

Pat Guptill, long time South Dakota cattle rancher and proponent of Year Round Grazing, explains what it is, why it works and how to get started. By Mike Cox Pat Guptill lives in Quinn, South Dakota, a small town just north of the Badlands National Park, on a 7000 acre ranch. In a recent Growing Resilience podcast, he gave great insight into Adaptive Grazing Management. In this conversation with Buz Kloot, he discusses Year Round Grazing. Pat Guptill Pat says the primary reasons for doing Year Round Grazing is to reduce costs and eliminate winter cattle work. " Calving in sync with nature isn't all a bed of roses. No matter what you do, if you own cattle you're going to have issues. But do I want to be out there working with cattle in a blizzard or on green grass at 65, 70 degrees?" When Pat Guptill gets questions about Year Round Grazing, they range from, "Can you teach me that?" to, "You're gonna go broke." There is a wide range of beliefs on this subject based on many factors. " But one of the things that we haven't understood is when you calve away from when Mother Nature says you should; usually when the deer have their babies, that's when (your cows) should be having babies. Okay? The farther away from that point you get, the higher the input cost is going to be." According to Guptill, the first thing a rancher should do if he's beginning Year Round Grazing, is to get the calving process in sync with Nature. Have babies when the deer and bison do, typically in May. Once this is achieved, everything else should fall into place. Perception is a major reason some folks don't try this method. "Let's say we're going to calve in March. Now that cow has to be in body conditions, score five and a half to six, or she won't re-breed real easy." Pat's cows run about a 4 body condition score (BCS) in March, which doesn't look good to ranchers used to calving that early. To have a cow at a BCS of 5-6 to calve in March requires that rancher to feed mama cows all winter with high quality feed. That's really expensive. "The whole thought process is let that cow slip all winter and then when March arrives, she starts to gain. That's what the Buffalo did and our cows are not going to fall apart if we let them slip, if we're calving at the right time for our area. Does that kind of make sense?" Pat can have cows at a 5-6 BCS on May 20, ready for calving, and not spend anywhere near as much on premium feed. 80% of winter feed costs is preparing cows for March calving. Hay may still be necessary for winter grazing as insurance, but the rancher can determine when and how much hay to feed based on weather and grass conditions. As long as cattle are able to graze, hay isn't necessary. If ice forms, or high protein grass isn't available, then hay may be required. However, feeding hay isn’t part of the daily winter routine for Pat. During Winter, cattle can graze in the snow, but not on ice. With the snow, they use their snouts to move snow aside to reach grass. Water isn't as necessary when cattle are snow grazing. They will eat a few mouthfuls of grass then lick the snow for moisture. Hay is drier and requires water tanks to be filled, and the surface ice broken regularly. "Study more and do the paperwork. Figure the savings. We can't make our cattle worth more but we can reduce cost input." Pat has also found that calving in late Spring results in more pounds sold. "Our cattle may be smaller at sale but there are more of them." Pat suggests to anybody that wants to start this, they need to " put their feet under the table with somebody that's already doing it," and sit down and figure. One afternoon, a cup of drinking coffee, and visit; and a lot of things will fall in place for them. "A lot of us have done this. We've already made mistakes. There's no sense other people making our mistakes. You go make your own mistakes, but don't forget to share them with me so I don't make them." In addition, we provide some links that feature Pat: For more information on Year Round Grazing, watch this podcast: https://www.growingresiliencesd.com/podcasts/episode/cfd5ac2a/33-calving-with-nature-cuts-costs-for-year-round-grazing Video: “Year Round Grazing: A Change you can believe in”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYczr2Lv-SA 2013 SD Leopold Award: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGsjUdScWZM A 2014 video by SDSU visits with Pat about High Stock Density grazing (Pat doesn’t necessarily like to use the words “Mob Grazing”) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWC9qkYdDNA In 2021, Pat and wife Mary Lou, through the SD NOLO (Non-Operating Land Owner) project, discuss “Understanding the Connection: Stress Reduction Through Soil Health” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfIJp-M1K5U Also please visit the SD NRCS Range and Pasture website for more information at: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/conservation-basics/natural-resource-concerns/animals ____________________________________________________________________ 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

“How the microbiomes develop in their community and how they change throughout the time until they reach maturity. If you break out the fungal hyphae and you disturb microbiomes, they won't be able to develop, establish, and flourish from that point on.…we realized how important it is to have the fungal community in the system.” David Johnson is a molecular biologist and research scientist residing in Las Cruces NM,investigating soil microbial community population, structure, diversity and biological functionality and their influence on plant growth and soil fertility development in farm and rangeland ecosystems. While working on a project that involved composting excess cow manure that needed a lot of turning, David brought home a lot of dirty laundry. David’s wife, Hui-Chun Su-Johnson, says she grew tired of washing David’s clothes from turning cow poop, and this changed their lives. David and Hui-Chun Johnson David and Hui-Chun started to work on the idea of a compost system that was aerobic, yet did not require turning – a tall order indeed. Hui-Chun joined David in the field and the couple co-developed the no-turn, aerobic Johnson-Su Bioreactor (compost system) that provided a fungal-dominant, biologically diverse compost. The use of Johnson-Sucompost, integrated with land management, then became known as BEAM, or Biologically Enhanced Agricultural Management . What started off as an effort to reduce the laundry load in the Johnson household resulted in a unique compost with a globalfollowing (for example, see the Johnson-Su Facebook group )!! Given that ruminant animals are also “great composting machines”, the Johnsons turned their attention to examining the biological benefits of Adaptive Multi Paddock (AMP)Grazing Systems. AMP is based on the use of ruminant animals to mimic nature not unlike what we may have found a few hundred years ago as bison roamed the prairie in herds that constantly moved in search of food and were kept tight by predators, leaving behind urine, dung, and hoofprints and other animal residue that fed soil organisms. The leftover grass, trampled by bison hooves, covered, protected and fed soil microbes, especially fungi, facilitated the capture and incorporation of more organic matter into the soil profile. In short, this process of herds of ruminants moving through the landscape “ inoculated the soil as the bison passed through each area.” Whether you call it Adaptive Multi Paddock grazing, or Adaptive Management, the watchwords for this process are: O bserve, A dapt, R epeat. Each area is different. Each herd, each ranch, each pasture is different, and each day’s weather is different. The key to moving this system forward in the regenerative process lies in observation and subsequent adaptation. In 2022, Johnson and colleagues produced another peer-reviewed article on the benefits of AMP grazing . This research, based on 5 paired across-the-fence pastures (one conventional pasture, one AMP pasture) in the Southeast, fit nicely with similar efforts across the country with a group of researchers that include Richard Teague, Steven Apfelbaum, Ry Thompson, and Peter Byck (also co-authors with Johnson). This group is conducting other across-the fence experiments, on real farms and ranches, in different parts of the United States and Canada, keep an eye out for their names, also see a list of some of their peer-reviewed articles at the end of this piece. Results from the Johnson et al . study showed (1) AMP grazing systems significantly outperformed their conventional across the fence counterparts in standing crop biomass (2) increased fungal/bacterial ratios and (3) increased predator/prey ratios. This meansthat ranchers converting to AMP grazing strategies will see improved soil structure, improved forage production, increased soil organic matter, improved nutrient efficiency along with increased resilience of their systems to weather extremes. To be sure, AMP grazing is an appreciable departure from conventional systems and what was considered “the right way” for decades. “But now that we have more information out there as tools for [producers], hopefully there will be more ways to show people that there is a more defined, more reliable path.” Says Johnson. He continues: “For [producers] to transition to regenerative and be profitable will only be positive and beneficial for everybody when they are able to make more money and be a better steward of land.. it's all positive feedback loop…and I think we just need to find a way to show people that OK, here is a path that you can go forward with or without having to take on so much risk of unknown.” More science like this is making its way to peer review literature, validating what some regenerative ranchers and farmers have known and practiced for decades. This science, paired with living working examples on farms and ranches across the country, across the globe, provides more evidence and incentive for producers to rethink their business models for the better. __________________________________________________________________________________________ For more on Adaptive Grazing, please search Adaptive Grazing and Allen Williams . For more peer review literature on the Science of AMP by this group, please see: Apfelbaum et al. 2022. Vegetation, water infiltration, and soil carbon response to Adaptive Multi-Paddock and Conventional grazing in Southeastern USA ranches . Journal of Environmental Management 308:114576 Mosier S et al. 2021. Adaptive multi-paddock grazing enhances soil carbon and nitrogen stocks and stabilization through mineral association in southeastern U.S. grazing lands . Journal of Environmental Management 288:112409 Teague WR. 2018. Managing grazing to restore soil health and farm livelihoods . Journal of Animal Science 96:1519-1530 Teague WR et al. 2011. Grazing management impacts on vegetation, soil biota and soil chemical, physical and hydrological properties in tall grass prairie. Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment 141:310-322 Teague WR et al. Assessing optimal configurations of multi-paddock grazing strategies in tallgrass prairie using a simulation model . Journal of Environmental Management 150:262-273 Teague WR and Kreuter U. 2020. Managing grazing to restore soil health, ecosystem function, and ecosystem services . Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 4:534187 Teague WR et al. 2013. Multipaddock grazing on rangelands: why the perceptual dichotomy between research results and rancher experience? Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 128:699-717 _____________________________________________________________________________________________ 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”, rancher Doug Feltman tells us the importance of controlling Missouri River’s ever-expanding “Green Glacier” through the use of prescribed fire. About 7 miles southwest of Chaimberlain, SD, Doug Feltman lives on the land he grew up on alongside the Missouri river. He’s seen a lot of changes occur over the years, but none as threatening as the “Green Glacier”; the encroachment of the Eastern Red Cedar up the river and into the prairie. “It just slowly, they got more, and more, and more. And people, the farmers and ranchers didn't realize that, I guess, and they never made an attempt to try to control them. Now, some of the trees are 15, 20 feet tall. They're tremendously hard to control then. When they're a foot and a half or two feet tall, that's when you should control them. And that should be done by fire, prescribed fire. But prescribed fire is a process that all of us are going to have to sell to people.” As a rotational grazer and proponent of prescribed burning, Doug’s ranching success comes from not only managing his livestock and land in a healthy way, but also from combatting invasive species by mimicking natures history of fire. Doug Feldman 1) What is the one thing that you’ve done that has been the most important to the success of the operation? The one thing that I noticed that really changed the grazing practices here is when dad died and we moved back here, he had two pastures. Only divided into two pastures. I started to go to the NRCS meetings and every class I could on grazing and the Grassland Coalition and everything and started learning about rotational grazing. So, I started running electric fence through the pasture. Today, the place is divided up into six pastures. We rotate through those six. If possible, I don't go back into the same pasture every spring to give the cool season grasses a different outlook. I do not, I probably should, but I don't, go through and measure the grass and weigh it and all of that. I just go by sight. But I move them through the pastures that way. 2) Can you recall a moment or a time when the lightbulb went on for you that changed the way you were grazing? The light bulb for that went on for me when I started going to the Grassland Coalition meeting. They talked a lot about the rotational grazing, and it really seeing the slides and the people that really did the studies with it, I could see the advantage to it. And I started that here and like I say, it's not scientific at all. It's just an old guy looking at the pasture, but it is obvious that that is a great benefit for the range. 3) What surprised you most when you changed the way you were grazing? I guess what surprised me the most, and it didn't take a long time after I got the pastures divided, was that it was as obvious as it was. We put in a water tank that was not there before. Naturally, the cattle, if they were up on top, had to walk clear down to the river for water. Well, that wasn't working very good. So, with some help, we put in a water tank up there. Now, the cattle utilize the grass up there and they don't eat it down to the, like the kitchen floor, down by the river. That was the most surprising to me, is as obvious it was when you started doing it. 4) What would you say is the biggest misconception people have who are not managing their grazing systems for resiliency and soil health? I think the biggest misconception of rotational grazing, and I guess I might've been part of that also, is you wondered if it worked. If you went to all the work to put a fence from here to the river, down through the hills, was it going to be worth it? I think that's probably the biggest misconception I would think there would be. And it happened to me too, but I'll tell you straight out, it does work. I was surprised at how obvious it was that it does work. 5) Is there something you'd still like to do that you haven't quite managed to do yet on your operation? What I'd still want to do is work on the prescribed fires and get more of the neighbors involved here. That's the only way we're going to control these cedar trees and that's what I want to do, but it takes time. My recommendation to the people here is to really look at your pasture. If you aren't sure about the fire, contact somebody from the [Mid-Missouri River Prescribed Burn] Association. We'll come up and look at it with you and give you some ideas. You, the landowner, you're still the boss, but we could give you some ideas. And just really look at it and try to change your mindset that it's something that's going to have to happen. Look down the road. If you don't do anything, pretty soon your stocking rate isn't going to be what it is today, because it's only going to get worse. The cedars aren't going to stop. 6) When you walk across your grasslands, what and where are you looking for indicators of healthy grassland? What I look for is the amount of grass that's there. And like I say, I don't measure it and weigh it all that. But you look at the amount of grass that's there, the different kinds of grass. I don't know exactly how to say it. You look to see if the pasture's healthy, I guess. 7) Can you give us an example of a change that you made that at first you thought would never work? When we moved back here, I never thought, and I just really never gave it a thought, of a prescribed fire. Since I've been involved with the Burn Association, I have seen that if you write the plan, follow your plan, it will work. And I guess that's the only thing I can say there. I was like everybody else, didn't want fires, but I have seen that it does work. 8) We have a number of words that begin with R, but the three that we've settled on, Rotate, Rest, Recovery, that are really key to healthy and resilient range land. Which one would be your favorite and why? With rotation, rest, and recovery, I guess maybe the one I would think would be the most important would be the rest. The grass has to rest to build the root system to have enough nutrients and stuff. You just can't graze the pastures down like the kitchen floor and keep it at that. It just isn't going to work. That's why the rotation, the recovery, and the rest is so important. And I think probably for me, I think the rest would be the most important. ______________________________________________ _______________________ 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

Candice Olson-Mizera’s family roots have been in a North-central South Dakota ranch just west of the Missouri River for decades. The fourth-generation rancher from McLaughlin now firmly believes the key to keeping those family roots intact is to nurture the deep roots of grasses native to her ranch. Candice Olson-Mizera In the last two decades, Candice made it a point to understand her pastures better. She educated herself on how to work with nature to make the most of native rangelands. The changes she made on the 4,000-acre operation were bold––adding the fencing and water needed to divide the four pastures when she took over to rotating through over 20 pastures. The bold moves have doubled the carrying capacity and literally changed how she views the ground beneath her feet. She admits she didn’t know what to look for, below or above the ground, before she began looking into management ideas like intensive grazing and the need to rotate and allow pastures to rest and recover. She didn’t know in detail what was in her pastures. “Well, 15 or 20 years ago, I’m not sure what the pasture was composed of because I didn’t know the differences; even today, I still feel don’t know a lot, there's just so much more to learn. I knew we could do better, be more resilient and more profitable, so we needed to figure it out” While the new management ideas helped the ranch progress as a whole from the changes made, there were still some problem pastures. “Some of those pastures, they're kind of on the farther end of the ranch. We kept having trouble with our neighbor’s bulls getting in with our cows and so on, and we'd have calves earlier than we wanted to. So, we started kind of babying those pastures and letting them rest too much. So they would never get grazed early in the spring. I remember there being more of a monoculture; it just seemed like it wasn't doing as good or the cows weren't doing as good when they'd go up to those pastures, and it would just dry out too fast.” All about the roots What Candice learned was grasses like western wheatgrass and big bluestem could he overrun by cool season invasives like Kentucky bluegrass, crested wheatgrass, and smooth bromegrass. While those cool-season invasives may be able to grow in abundance during the early part of the growing season, they tend to smother the native grasses. Because of their shallow, turf-like root systems (and lack of a mycorrhizal relationship to prairie soil microbes), the cool season invasive grasses soon become unpalatable and dried out as the season progresses, leaving a weak forage base by the time it gets warm and dry. If the deeper-rooted and better-adapted natives are smothered out in rank growth and thatch layers, they slowly begin to disappear, further degrading the forage base and the soil’s resilience. As Candice became more educated through organizations like the South Dakota Grassland Coalition and the South Dakota Soil Health Coalition and worked closely with Ryan Beer, a conservationist with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, she began working on a plan to combat the Kentucky bluegrass. Part of this plan required her to graze more than 600 cows in a quarter at a time. This intensive grazing helped break through the Kentucky bluegrass thatch layer that shaded out natives and repelled rainwater. Still, sometimes, grazing was not hard enough. “And then we were only in that pasture, probably, I think it was 12 to 14 days. And then we moved to the next pasture. Ryan [Beer] came out and looked and actually, we hadn't hit the second pasture enough. So he thought we should let the cows back in there. And that really worked out well.” The plan was not always easy to implement. Instead of using yearlings, they turned to their cow-calf pairs. Matching momma cows to calves, finding calves that were bedded down, and moving from pasture to pasture were labor-intensive activities, especially during calving, but Candice’s eyes were on the prize. “In the end, it was just more babysitting,” Candice says. “Our biggest objective was tackling the Kentucky bluegrass problem and improving the rangeland.” As time went by, Ryan Beer suggested they leave the gate open for a day after a move; this solution seemed to work for the pairs. “We found that worked the best,” Candice says. “Even now when we rotate in the summertime, we open the gates and call them and they want to move and come back the next day. Then we shut the gates, and make sure the pastures are cleared out.” While the operation was labor intensive and there were kinks that needed to be worked out, the reward was significant. “We had a lot of big bluestem come in that same year. We couldn't believe the difference and the diversity that came, it was awesome and beautiful!” Candice says. “And I was really happy with the response. It made me a believer, I guess as far as management intensive short duration––get them in, get them off, let's have some hoof impact, you know.” She employs a metaphor to describe the therapeutic and aggressive nature of intensive grazing to control invasives, one we can all relate to: “It’s kind of like getting a massage. Sometimes you have to have a little bit of pain to feel better.” PODCAST LINKS: From this story with Candice Mizera . With Justin Thompson on Adaptive Grazing With Dr. Allen Williams on Adaptive Grazing OTHER LINKS: On Adaptive Grazing: https://www.csuchico.edu/regenerativeagriculture/ra101-section/managed-grazing.shtml _____________________________________________ _______________________ 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