Discover expert insights, farmer-led strategies, and practical solutions to manage soil salinity. Transform depleted soils into thriving fields with Growing Resilience. Soil Salinity Resources Soil salinity has quietly reshaped agricultural landscapes for decades, posing a growing challenge for farmers and ranchers. Anthony Bly, a seasoned soil scientist and agronomist, unpacks the complex factors behind this issue—how shifts in rainfall patterns, evolving land management practices, and economic pressures have contributed to rising salt levels. Drawing from his career working alongside producers, Anthony shares how past approaches, such as diverse crop rotations and integrated livestock systems, once kept salinity in check. He recalls lessons from the early ’90s at SDSU, when grasslands and perennial systems played a crucial role in managing soil health. But as more land was converted to cropland, water tables rose, bringing salt to the surface. This resource hub is about solutions—practical, research-backed strategies to help farmers and ranchers reclaim their land. From adjusting crop rotations to reintroducing perennials, the path forward lies in understanding the land’s natural processes and working with them. Explore the insights shared here and discover real-world approaches to mitigating soil salinity. With the right knowledge and stewardship, depleted soils can be restored, ensuring productive fields for future generations. Together with USDA-NRCS , we're tackling soil salinity and building healthier soils. Play Video Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tumblr Copy Link Link Copied Discover how the Hamilton brothers tackled salinity on their farm through innovative vegetation strategies and farming practice changes, transforming once unproductive land into thriving acres. Play Video Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tumblr Copy Link Link Copied Soil salinity has been creeping into agricultural landscapes for decades, and Anthony Bly explains why. Drawing from his long career in soil science, agronomy and firsthand work with farmers, he explains how changes in rainfall, land management, and economic pressures have contributed to rising salt levels. Play Video Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tumblr Copy Link Link Copied Discover the dramatic transformation of salinity-affected soil at the Cain Creek Project. Kent Vlieger shares detailed salinity and sodicity data from 2015 to 2023, revealing how strategic revegetation restored productivity and soil health. All VIDEOS Play Video Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tumblr Copy Link Link Copied Join Kent Vlieger as he explores the Cain Creek Project’s success in radically reducing soil salinity. With real data and years of progress, see how innovative strategies are restoring productivity to the land. . Soil Salinity Podcasts All PODCASTS Soil Salinity Blog Posts You Can’t Fix Salinity with a Box Why Soil Salinity Is Likely to Worsen This Year — and What You Can Do About It Learning About Salinity: A Journey from Confusion to Clarity Building Resilience in Family Farms: South Dakota's Innovative Salinity Solutions All BLOG POSTS Soil Salinity Resources BEADLE COUNTY CONSERVATION DISTRICT DEMO PLOT RESULTS Click here to download! HOW TO MORE PROFITABLY MANAGE SALINE SOIL SPOTS Click here to download! A BETTER WAY TO MANAGE SALINE SOILS FACT SHEET Click here to view! NRSC SALINITY AND SODIC SOIL MANAGEMENT Click here to download! SOIL SALINITY MANAGEMENT Click here to view! ALL RESOURCES Soil Salinity Shorts ALL SHORTS

We get together with ranchers Drew Anderson (Lemmon, SD), Bart Carmichael (faith, SD) and Harold and Jodie Gaugler (Grant Co., ND, also ranching near Thunder Hawk SD.) to discuss their experiences with bale grazing. Not Just No-Till: Sorting Fact from Fiction in a Lively Debate Few topics on our site spark as much interest—and as much spirited debate—as no-till farming. Scroll through our Facebook threads and you’ll see it: farmers, agronomists, gardeners, and even a few armchair soil scientists weighing in with strong opinions. Some argue no-till is the clear path forward; others point out it’s no silver bullet. We get it. For some, no-till sounds like the White Queen in Alice in Wonderland —asking you to “believe six impossible things before breakfast.” Perennial roots going 12–20 feet deep? Diverse soils that act like sponges instead of concrete? It can be hard to picture if you’ve never seen it. But producers who’ve lived through the transition know it’s possible—and profitable. That’s because no-till isn’t meant to stand alone. As Dr. Dwayne Beck has spent decades demonstrating, when no-till is paired with rotations, cover crops, and sometimes livestock, it becomes part of a system that restores natural pore space, improves infiltration, and often lowers costs. And while regional soils—from South Dakota silt loams to Kansas clays—behave differently, research and farmer experience show that context-driven management makes all the difference. Our goal here isn’t to push a single narrative, but to share the science and stories so you can sort through the information for yourself. You’ll find podcasts with innovators like Dr. Dwayne Beck, Gabe Brown, Ray Archuleta, and Dr. Ray Weil, alongside South Dakota farmers who’ve put no-till to work in their own operations. You’ll also find blogs where we dig into questions like: Does no-till really improve water infiltration compared to tillage? How do crop rotations affect no-till outcomes? What do large-scale studies (and real farmers) say about yields and profits in no-till systems? When does no-till work—and when doesn’t it? Whether you’re a seasoned practitioner, a skeptic, or somewhere in between, we invite you to explore, question, and draw your own conclusions. Thank you to the USDA-NRCS for collaboration on these valuable no-till stories. Play Video Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tumblr Copy Link Link Copied All VIDEOS No-Till Podcasts All PODCASTS No-Till Blog Posts The Wind You Don’t Notice (And What It’s Taking from Your Soil) Most soil loss doesn’t happen in storms—it happens on ordinary spring days. In dry conditions across South Dakota, steady winds are quietly moving soil, nutrients, and long-term productivity off exposed fields. Mar 31 4 min read Cows on Cover Crops: South Dakota Farmer Adds $86/acre and 70 Bu Corn On our spring tour of South Dakota farmers integrating livestock, my partner in crime, Joe Dickie, and I left Huron, and a couple of hours later crested the rise where Ryan Urban lives. Ryan identifies himself as a fourth-generation Pukwana crop-and-cattle producer—he jokes that they’re “cattle people who farm on the side.” With a name like Urban, I half expected him to grab a guitar and sing us a country tune. Instead, he grabbed the keys to his pickup, and we rode out into Aug 11, 2025 3 min read No-Till vs. Tillage: Which Really Lets the Water In? Jeff Hemenway, former Soil Health Conservationist, pointing out Roots in the Subsoil at 80” in a No-till, Cover-Cropped Field in Brookings, SD When a commenter wrote on one of our recent videos Dwayne Beck, no-till , he put it bluntly: “Without tillage water won’t penetrate. I rented 400 acres that was zero till for decades and it was like a concrete block.” That comment — echoed by others in our threads — hits at one of the most common criticisms of no-till. If the soil is h Aug 11, 2025 4 min read No-Till, No Yield? Are We Putting Corn Above Soybean Yields? As a response to several requests for more peer-reviewed material on the economics of no-till (NT) vs. conventional tillage (CT), I went digging into the usual suspects — input costs, yield comparisons, and long-term trials. That’s when I stumbled on research from South Dakota State University’s Beresford Research Farm that made me realize: I had a bias . In an earlier blog , we cited a meta-analysis showing no-till yields averaging 5.7% lower overall compared to conventiona Jul 21, 2025 3 min read Beyond No-Till: Why Crop Rotations Matter More Than You Think Natalie Sturm By the Growing Resilience Team For decades, no-till has been hailed as a cornerstone of regenerative agriculture—an essential practice to protect soil while still producing food, feed, fuel, and fiber. However, a groundbreaking thesis by soil scientist Natalie Sturm, conducted at the Dakota Lakes Research Farm in central South Dakota, shows that no-till is only part of the equation. It’s not just about reducing disturbance. It’s about what you grow—and how you g Jun 16, 2025 3 min read When Does No-Till Work? Two Major Studies and What Farmers Told Us By the Growing Resilience Team When we posted a video of Dr. Dwayne Beck explaining how tillage destroys soil structure and reduces infiltration, we expected a little pushback—but not hundreds of comments. What followed was one of our most active conversations yet, with producers from across the region offering both challenges and praise. It confirmed something we already suspected: There’s no one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to tillage and yield. So, we did what we alw May 27, 2025 3 min read ALL BLOG POSTS No-Till Resources No-Till: Common Questions and Straight Answers Click here to download! ALL RESOURCES No-Till Shorts ALL SHORTS

We get together with ranchers Drew Anderson (Lemmon, SD), Bart Carmichael (faith, SD) and Harold and Jodie Gaugler (Grant Co., ND, also ranching near Thunder Hawk SD.) to discuss their experiences with bale grazing. Livestock Integration Livestock integration is one of those topics that quickly sparks both excitement and skepticism. Spend a little time in our conversations online and you’ll see it: some producers see livestock as the missing link in soil health systems, while others wonder if the added complexity, cost, and management are worth it. We understand both perspectives. Bringing animals back onto the land—especially in systems that haven’t had them for years—can feel like a big leap. Fencing, water access, timing, and labor all matter. And no two operations look the same, so what works for one producer might not translate directly to another. But for many farmers and ranchers, integrating livestock is less about adding something new and more about restoring a natural cycle. Managed well, grazing can help cycle nutrients, stimulate plant growth, and improve soil structure in ways that complement practices like no-till and cover cropping. It turns residue into a resource and can create additional revenue streams along the way. Like no-till, livestock integration isn’t a standalone solution—it’s part of a system. Outcomes depend heavily on context: soil type, climate, crop rotation, stocking density, and management goals all play a role. The results can be powerful, but they’re rarely one-size-fits-all. Our goal is to share both the research and real-world experiences so you can evaluate what might work on your operation. Here you’ll find insights from producers, researchers, and conservationists exploring questions like: How does grazing impact soil health and nutrient cycling? What are the economic tradeoffs of adding livestock to a cropping system? How can grazing be managed to support—not set back—long-term productivity? When does livestock integration make sense—and when might it not? Whether you’re actively grazing, considering it, or just curious, we invite you to explore the ideas, weigh the evidence, and draw your own conclusions. Thanks to our partnership with the USDA-NRCS , we are able to help share this valuable information. Play Video Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tumblr Copy Link Link Copied All VIDEOS Livestock Integration Podcasts All PODCASTS Livestock Integration Blog Posts When Cattle Bring the Desert Back: Alejandro Carrillo’s Regenerative Ranching Story “I saw cattle bring the desert back,” Ray says, “and transform it back into native rangeland. It changed the local climate. He’s getting more rain now.” Jan 7 2 min read Healing Rangeland, One Graze at a Time — Van Mansheim’s Story Heath Bullington (Van’s nephew), who runs the farm with Van Mansheim, Lealand Schoon, Van’s soil Health Mentor, and Van in one of his pastures, October 2020. I first visited Van Mansheim about 5 miles north of Colome, in Tripp County, SD, on his farm in October 2020. When I recently sat down again for a podcast interview with him, the conversation quickly grew beyond a podcast. Van is the whole package: no-till, long rotations, cover crops, bale grazing, livestock integration Aug 21, 2025 3 min read How the Michalski Ranch Turned Marginal Cropland into a Diverse, Profitable Pasture On the South Dakota Coteau, the Michalski family transformed marginal cropland into a thriving, diverse pasture. Discover their grazing strategies, land ethic, and how diversity drives both resilience and profit. It was July 2021 when Joe Dickie and I rolled up to the Michalski spread on the Coteau. Waiting to greet us were Darin, his wife Jessica, and their son Cutler. Darin cut a dashing figure — blue sleeveless button-up, well-worn jeans, cowboy boots planted in the ground Aug 19, 2025 4 min read Cows on Cover Crops: South Dakota Farmer Adds $86/acre and 70 Bu Corn On our spring tour of South Dakota farmers integrating livestock, my partner in crime, Joe Dickie, and I left Huron, and a couple of hours later crested the rise where Ryan Urban lives. Ryan identifies himself as a fourth-generation Pukwana crop-and-cattle producer—he jokes that they’re “cattle people who farm on the side.” With a name like Urban, I half expected him to grab a guitar and sing us a country tune. Instead, he grabbed the keys to his pickup, and we rode out into Aug 11, 2025 3 min read Sorting Goldenrod Fact from Fiction: Toxic Weed or Overlooked Forage? We recently posted a video short of Pete Bauman talking about goldenrod on the July "Our Amazing Grasslands" video, and it took off! 110,000 plays and 1,000 likes in just 11 days. With that reach came a tidal wave of comments, and not surprisingly, many folks had strong opinions about goldenrod. They ranged from “Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Let’s feed shoe leather” to “Spot on—my sheep will hit the goldenrod, sunflowers, amaranth, giant ragweed, and mares tail first.” In between Aug 7, 2025 3 min read Blending No-Till, Cover Crops, and Stocker Cattle: Cody Merrigan’s Regenerative Farming Model in Clay County, SD By Buz Kloot An old friend of mine grew up in Utah’s Cache Valley, where his dad, a worn-out dairyman, would shake his head after a long day and mutter, “I sure hope there ain’t no cows in heaven.” But I’m not so sure anymore—especially after visiting Cody Merrigan, a young farmer just a stone’s throw from the University of South Dakota’s Vermillion campus. Cody runs a mixed operation of row crops, cover crops, and stocker cattle in Clay County, where most folks stick to corn Jun 24, 2025 3 min read ALL BLOG POSTS Livestock Integration Resources No-Till: Common Questions and Straight Answers Click here to download! ALL RESOURCES Livestock Integration Shorts ALL SHORTS

The mission of Growing Resilience Through Our Soils is to help ranchers and cropland managers maximize soil health to deliver profitable farming and ranching and well as soil resilience. This educational platform–led by passionate researchers and storytellers—uses videos, photos, and words to showcase the trials and successes of ranchers and farmers as they continue along their soil health journeys. Recipes Filter by Level Number of recipes found: 0

We get together with ranchers Drew Anderson (Lemmon, SD), Bart Carmichael (faith, SD) and Harold and Jodie Gaugler (Grant Co., ND, also ranching near Thunder Hawk SD.) to discuss their experiences with bale grazing. Drought Management Resources As South Dakota faces the challenges of drought in 2025, Growing Resilience is here to support ranchers and producers with valuable resources to manage and mitigate its impact. This page serves as a comprehensive hub for drought management information, offering videos, podcasts, PDFs, and blog posts designed to provide practical insights and solutions. Additionally, we are proud to partner with the South Dakota Drought Plan , a vital resource for preparing for and responding to drought conditions across the state. We encourage you to explore their site for more in-depth information on drought strategies, mitigation, and support available to you. With help from the USDA-NRCS , together we can build resilience for the future. Play Video Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tumblr Copy Link Link Copied All VIDEOS Drought Management Podcasts All PODCASTS Drought Management Blog Posts When Cattle Bring the Desert Back: Alejandro Carrillo’s Regenerative Ranching Story Jan 7 2 min read Drought Tolerance, Diversity, and Déjà Vu: What Dakota Lakes Is Teaching the World Dec 19, 2025 2 min read Ray Archuleta on Bare Soil, Fungicides, and Rethinking Soil Health Sep 2, 2025 5 min read Mastering Drought: The Sustainable Secrets of a South Dakota Rancher May 7, 2024 5 min read Rancher Prepares Drought Plan to Save Grass, Soil and Cows Apr 6, 2022 2 min read ALL BLOG POSTS Drought Management Resources DROUGHT 2025 - ADVICE AND TOOLS Click here to download! DROUGHT CONTINGENCY PLAN Q&A Click here to download! DROUGHT MANAGEMENT FACT SHEET Click here to download! DROUGHT TOOL Click here to download! DROUGHT TOOL INSTRUCTIONS Click here to download! DROUGHT MONITORING MAP Click here to view! ALL RESOURCES Drought Management Shorts ALL SHORTS

Your one-minute challenge to see what you know about keeping South Dakota’s grasslands healthy. Your one-minute challenge to see what you know about keeping South Dakota’s grasslands healthy. Resilience Rodeo - Finish that Thought! Match your thinking against Centerville, SD producer John Shubek to see if you can finish his thought on rotational grazing. “I just got really interested in sustainable practices and how to maintain the land. It’s enhanced our profitability. Rotational grazing worked great. We’ve been doing daily moves, just trying to better manage what they’re eating and manage the grass, give it an opportunity to recover. You see how the more you move the cows, the better the cows stay in condition, ____ ____ _____ ____ ____ _____ ___ _____ ____ .” the more the cows will eat their favorite grasses. the better the grass and ground stay in condition. the better my whole cow herd will like me. the better cows remember where to eat good grass. Enter details to submit answer First Name Last Name Email I heard about this from: Submit! The Finish That Thought challenge is brought to you by Growing Resilience Through Our Soils in partnership with the South Dakota organizations below.

We get together with ranchers Drew Anderson (Lemmon, SD), Bart Carmichael (faith, SD) and Harold and Jodie Gaugler (Grant Co., ND, also ranching near Thunder Hawk SD.) to discuss their experiences with bale grazing. Bale Grazing Videos Play Video Share Whole Channel This Video Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tumblr Copy Link Link Copied Now Playing 14:12 Play Video Now Playing 03:07 Play Video Now Playing 02:35 Play Video Now Playing 01:20 Play Video We get together with ranchers Drew Anderson (Lemmon, SD), Bart Carmichael (faith, SD) and Harold and Jodie Gaugler (Grant Co., ND, also ranching near Thunder Hawk SD.) to discuss their experiences with bale grazing. Special thanks to Drew Anderson and Jodie and Harold Gaugler for additional still images and explanations which were so crucial to this story and to the USDA-NRCS for helping us get this story out! Bale Grazing Podcast All PODCASTS Bale Grazing Blog Posts Winter Grazing in South Dakota: Reid Suelflow’s Practical Approach to Corn Grazing and Bale Grazing In January 2021, Joe Dickey visited Reid Suelflow near White Lake, South Dakota, to document how winter corn grazing and bale grazing reduce feeding costs while improving soil health. We are going to listen. sushmita62 Why Bale Grazing Makes Sense in an Open Winter This open winter can be a unique opportunity to experiment with bale grazing without making a complete system change commitment. Winter management can be made easier than you might think by starting small, lowering daily feeding pressure, and letting the land do the work. sushmita62 All BLOG POSTS Bale Grazing Resources BALE GRAZING FACTS Click here to download! BALE GRAZING Q&A Click here to download! All RESOURCES Bale Grazing Shorts All SHORTS

Eastern red cedar trees have invaded as much as 30 percent of the grassland along the Missouri River in southern South Dakota, and are slowly invading grasslands to the north. This is not unique to the Missouri and we are seeing similar encroachment in other river valleys in South Dakota, including the James River. Eastern red cedar trees have invaded as much as 30 percent of the grassland along the Missouri River in southern South Dakota, and are slowly invading grasslands to the north. This is not unique to the Missouri and we are seeing similar encroachment in other river valleys in South Dakota, including the James River. Fire is an ecological process and recognized control method, but many ranchers are hesitant to use it because of the fear of a runaway fire. As a result, the conversion of grassland to forest is equal in scale to the loss of grassland to row cropping. In this these videos, we visit with Rod Voss (NRCS), Sean Kelly (SDSU) and Ranchers Rich Grim (Gregory Co., SD) and Doug Feltman (Brule Co., SD) to talk about the eastern red cedar and the use of fire to restore rangeland. In this video we summarize the spread of the tree in the last 40-50 years and what it has cost us in terms of grazing, we talk about the role of fire in natural prairie systems, fear versus respect of fire, creating a burn plan, the Mid Missouri River prescribed Burn Association (MMRPBA) - the only one of its kind in South Dakota, and its role in helping producers prepare and execute burn plan, how to prepare the land for a fire including mechanical treatments, ensuring a good fuel load, in small situations where trees are small or large. Finally, we discuss fire return interval as it relates to the eastern red cedar and why it is important to begin addressing this problem now. Thank you to the USDA-NRCS for helping us share these stories on prescribed burning. Play Video Share Whole Channel This Video Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tumblr Copy Link Link Copied Now Playing 09:57 Play Video Now Playing 02:54 Play Video Now Playing 02:10 Play Video Now Playing 02:29 Play Video All VIDEOS Prescribed Burn Podcasts All PODCASTS Prescribed Burn Blog Posts Fire, Grazing, and the Long Patience of Grassland Restoration 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 Buz Kloot, Ph.D. Resilience Rodeo - Doug Feltman- Controlling Missouri River’s “Green Glacier” with Prescribed Fire 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 ju mtsausen Prescribed burn saves pastures from red cedar takeover Woody encroachment of trees can be managed to save cattle stocking rates and water loss. Rod Voss, NRCS Rangeland Management Specialist in Mitchell, South Dakota, discusses the importance of using prescribed burns to control red cedars in pastures—before they turn valuable grazing land into a forest. Listen to his podcast interview with Robin “Buz” Kloot on Growing Resilience podcasts . “South Dakota is on the front edge of a slow-moving tree glacier that, left unchecked, c mtsausen ALL BLOG POSTS Prescribed Burn Resources PRESCRIBED BURN FACTS Click here to download! PRESCRIBED BURN Q&A Click here to download! ALL RESOURCES Prescribed Burn Photos The MMRPBA is currently the only burn association in South Dakota. Click here to learn more about the association. 1/12 Prescribed Burn Shorts ALL SHORTS Prescribed Burn Videos

We get together with ranchers Drew Anderson (Lemmon, SD), Bart Carmichael (faith, SD) and Harold and Jodie Gaugler (Grant Co., ND, also ranching near Thunder Hawk SD.) to discuss their experiences with bale grazing. Calving On Grass Video Many ranchers/farmers have grown tired of the increasing animal (and financial) losses and the associated human stress caused by calving during more extreme February and March weather. Calving on grass has become the management tool of choice for many ranchers in South Dakota. This video features Mike Blaalid (Micthell, SD), Candice Olson Mizera (McLaughlin SD) and Larry Wagner (Chamberlain/Pukwana, SD) discussing the advantages of calving on grass, why they changed calving dates, a few pointers to success on calving on grass, cattle traits for grass calving, calf health, reductions in costs (also reductions in capital for infrastructure ), and the knock on effect in terms of reduced labor and human animal stress. This short video (10 ½ minutes) is really a small sample of the benefits of calving on grass. One final question: what does calving on grass have to do with soil health and healthy rangeland. One of the biggest threats to rangeland in South Dakota is conversion to cropland and this land use change is especially tempting when corn prices are higher. May calving allows (1) folks like Larry Wagner to stay in the cow business and (2) reduces the barriers to entry for new producers to come into the cow business because of lower infrastructure costs (covered in the final section of how calving on grass can work for you) – in short, keeping the prairies in ranching and recruiting more folks into ranching allows us to keep the grass green side up, allows us to preserve the prairie, a national treasure and finally, allows us to preserve a way of life. We're grateful for our partnership with USDA-NRCS to share stories just like this. Play Video Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tumblr Copy Link Link Copied All VIDEOS Calving On Grass Podcast All PODCASTS Calving On Grass Blog Posts Calving in Sync with Nature: How One South Dakota Ranch Rebuilt Its System After years of winter calving and rising feed costs, the Kammerer family of western South Dakota shifted their system to align calving with green grass. The result? Lower weather risk, reduced hay bills, and a renewed focus on land, labor, and family.We are not going to extract content. We are going to listen. sushmita62 Grass, Grit, and Generations: The Kammerers of Piedmont, SD On a seventh-generation ranch near Piedmont, South Dakota, Jimmie and Riley Kammerer manage grass, cattle, and family together—building resilience through thoughtful grazing, husbandry, and shared work. sushmita62 All BLOG POSTS Calving On Grass Resources CALVING ON GRASS FACTS Click here to download! CALVING ON GRASS Q&A Click here to download! ALL RESOURCES Calving On Grass Shorts ALL SHORTS

Do you have soil health questions and don't know who to ask? We are here for you. Ask us anything! CONTACT US Do you have questions on any of these topics? -Managing for drought -Managing for better outcomes after the drought -Ranching Profitably -Soil Heath on the Ranch or Farm -Bale Grazing -Prescribed grazing, rotational grazing, adaptive management -Fencing and water systems -Prescribed burn -Grazing schools CONTACT US HERE: Submit Thanks for submitting! Address Department of Environmental Health Sciences Arnold School of Public Health Suite 401 921 Assembly Street Columbia, South Carolina 29201

Labor and equipment needs, economics, calving, grazing practices, grassland diversity, soil health, livestock, lifestyle––virtually everything can change for the better when you evolve to year round grazing. Year Round Grazing Videos South Dakota ranchers Pat Guptill and Bart Carmichael, pioneers of year round grazing, share their journeys into the practice along with the top obstacles and insights gleaned along the way. These valuable resources were created in partnership with the USDA-NRCS. Play Video Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tumblr Copy Link Link Copied All VIDEOS Year Round Grazing Blog Posts Year-Round Grazing in South Dakota: Lessons from Pat Guptill & Bart Carmichael Can you really graze cattle year-round? South Dakota ranchers Pat Guptill and Bart Carmichael say yes — not through miracle, but through mindset. By calving on grass, managing for plant diversity, and timing their moves with nature, they’ve cut feed costs, restored their soils, and rediscovered joy in ranching. Watch the Year-Round Grazing video . Buz Kloot, Ph.D. The Range According to Bart At Wedge Tent Ranch near Faith, SD, Bart Carmichael shows how adaptive grazing, humor, and humility can turn harsh prairie country into a thriving, resilient landscape. kloot1 Fire, Grazing, and the Long Patience of Grassland Restoration 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 Buz Kloot, Ph.D. All BLOG POSTS Year Round Grazing Resources YEAR ROUND GRAZING FACT SHEET Click here to download! ALL RESOURCES Year Round Grazing Shorts ALL SHORTS

Each week we release new content that is aired on multiple radio stations. You can listen to everything that has previously aired here and check back next week for new content! Radio Media NEW CONTENT UPDATED WEEKLY! Gene Ausland Rancher “When somebody asks me about it, I tell them it's a lot of hard work; it takes a lot of dedication, but in the long run it's going to pay off big time because you're going to have grass when you need it.” Amy Cammack Rancher “When we move our cattle because they're used to the rotational grazing you just go to the gate and holler “come boss, come boss.” and they are ready to go through and shut the gate behind them. It works really well; you can move them on and make sure grass grows better. We're seeing very good benefits.” Sandy Limpert Rancher “We're in Northwest South Dakota where the old-timers say we have a drought three years out of ten, and that's probably close to right. Our theory is to keep a lot of pastures with a lot of old growth ahead of us. Everybody I've talked to, that has done this rotational grazing for longer than we have, say they've yet to reach their potential; the pastures continue to get better and better.” Stewart Schmidt Rancher “We get credit for being Cowboys, or we get credit for being horsemen, or cattlemen, but really what we are is grazers. We are grass managers. We use cattle or buffalo or sheep or horses or whatever we use as a tool to be able to market it and that's what we've found a way to market grass through cattle and in using the cattle to benefit the grass.” Dominic Harmon “I don't think there's any one shoe fits all for a rotational grazing system, depends on what grasses you have and what paddocks. Because you got certain species in certain areas, so you can graze early, and then you've got species you can graze later that are good late season feed. I think I've increased production by around 90 to 100 percent on a lot of the paddocks.” Dan Anderson “Then we got into an EQIP contract. Split our pastures up even more, hot wire, because we were on both sheep and cattle. We run four smooth wires and a couple of more hot. We just noticed the more rest you give a plant, the more root system it develops, the more growth it gives on top, the greater resilience it has when it is either eaten or drought comes in. It'll snap back.” Chris Bowlander Rancher “If I’m riding across land that I haven’t ridden across, the first thing I look for now is soil. I look down. Can I see soil? And I know now that’s bad news. I want to look down and not see soil. I look for variety of species of the grasses. It gets addictive, truly, to look at different species of grass.” Steve Davis “We’re not a very big operation…. we run anywhere from about 70 to 100 hunters through, and we’re harvesting anywhere from 300 to 400 birds in a season. Obviously with all the grasses that we have, that’s a beautiful place for birds nesting. I’ve noticed just being out there’s a lot of hens with a lot of little ones running behind them, and that’s a good thing to see.” Mike McKernan Summit Lake Project “We’re not here just for the cows. I guess I look at the cows as using the tool to help manage the grass so we can get good production from our cows. We get good cover for the wildlife. And compared to a lot of other pastures that are around, we find more wildlife out in here than you do in other areas where they’re just not managing the grass.” Bruce Haerter Rancher "Over the last 20 plus years, we've converted a lot of acres away from crop into grasslands. We have lots of cross fencing. We do rotate our cattle. There'll be times where we use acres more and then maybe for a year, don't use them at all. If I could give somebody some advice, what I would say is go to the people that live and work with grassland conservation and water and all those things. Cause there are those people out there. They're easy to talk to." Ray Effling Rancher "We winter a few cows that we own of our own. And then we custom graze. We've done the slow moves we've done. The fast moves. We like them all. Our primary goals when we are moving these cattle is the soil health. Moving the cattle through and letting the plants recover, all our paddocks, we try to give a 60 day rest, no matter where we're at, we've seen where that has really benefited the soil and benefited the cattle." Robert Boylan Rancher "Cattle and sheep out here. Honestly, I think I I've run the cattle so I can wear a cowboy hat. I run the sheep to make the payments. I believe it was 2012 that I realized the importance of rest and rotate. Cause we just didn't get a use in pastures because there wasn't water. We've probably got close to 60 miles of pipeline put in. I've built 120 reservoirs the last four years, got probably close to 80 water tanks on the place. Water distribution is the best thing you can do for grasslands." Dave Grassel Rancher "Tyler Moore and I've been best friends for about 20 years. We had the opportunity to rent some grass together. We approached the land owner and told them that if we were given the opportunity to rent the land, that we would rotational graze on it. And they took us up on that. We underbid some fellow ranchers, but we offered a rotational graze and they thought that'd be a better deal for everybody in the long run." Jon Smikle Rancher "My dad and grandfather did a great job setting this place up for rotational grazing. Take half leave half. We have 54 tanks on the place, so our water situation is amazing. Without a lot of labor, we can just put more cattle in the pastures for shorter amount of time and just move them faster. It's amazing how resilient range land is. If you're not continuously overgrazing it year after year, it, it heals pretty fast." Charlie Totton Rancher "We went to just a lot of these one-day classes like ranchers workshops and pasture walks, and then we finally went on some bus trips that the NRCS and Extension Service put on, when you're on a pasture walk or a bus trip, you know, you're on the guy's place; You can see if it's working or not. Learning or knowledge is probably the most important thing." John Rittberger Rancher "Our grandparents homesteaded this land in 1909, my father stayed on the place, and then we took over from there. Our goal for grazing is to always leave grass. We love grass. I like looking out on a pasture that looks good even after we take cattle off. Having an inventory of what's in a pasture has really helped me…knowing how many AUMS are in each pasture is really beneficial." Bart Carmichael Rancher "Pastures range from 30 acres to 160 acres. Move cattle sometimes every day, but at least every week. Try to give everything of rest of at least 14 months on our pastures to give it a chance to recover, rest. Trying to graze all year long. Trying to have pasture that can be grazed any time of the year and have a cow that'll do it with the management grazing, we've seen an increase in wildlife and increase in plants." Amy Cammack Rancher "When we had that terrible drought, we had a new pasture every week in that way we had 13 weeks worth of grazing and every week they have new grass and every time you put them on fresh grass and makes them eat grow better, milk better, look better. Every year you start in a different pasture so that you're grazing at a different time." Randy and Jean Shultz "If the cattle are on the same pasture they’re going to keep eating their favorite plant and those plants will disappear and decrease, and the less desirable plants will come in. You get more diversity with your cool season and warm season grasses as you move your cattle and have shorter duration grazing. With the cross-fencing, with the more pastures, we’ll see warm seasons grasses come in. They may not have been evident for fifty years, but the grass is still there and it comes back. I don’t know how to measure the improvement in the soil, but I’m sure there’s an improvement." John Shubek Rancher "I just got really interested in sustainable practices and how to maintain the land. It’s enhanced our profitability. Rotational grazing worked great. This year we’ve been doing daily moves, just trying to better manage what they’re eating and manage the grass, give it an opportunity to recover you see how the more you move the cows, the better the cows stay in condition, the better the grass and the ground stays in condition." Kristen Johnson Rancher "When we’re going out and we’re moving cattle from one pasture to the next, you can just see how it benefits both the grass and the --how much better nutritionally we can offer different grasses to our cattle by letting that grass rest. And see the cows get excited. They want to come. They want that new grass. You can see a very big difference in what some of the more continual grazed systems versus our rotations,—you can see a big difference in your stand of grass, in the healthier cattle, in the wildlife, in all of it." Joel Erickson Rancher "The last couple years we’ve seeded full-season cover crops just for grazing. The cows are a great recycler. Those deep-rooted brassicas pull up nutrients, and then run them through the cows, we’re not afraid to put up electric fence and we can haul water, too, if we need to. We do that quite a bit for fall grazing. It’s cheaper to haul water than it is to haul feed, so that’s why we really like the fall grazing or the winter grazing, as long as winter will allow." Dustin Jewett NRSC Soil Health Specialist "The programs that we offer through the NRCS, the main ones, you know, we have EQIP, we have CSP, CRP, we can do practices like waterline, tanks, windbreaks, trees, fences, ponds, seeding, If you have cropland that isn’t producing that great or you want to convert it back to grass for soil health we can cost-share anywhere between 75 and 90 percent cost-share on a lot of these practices. Practices that really help out our area are fences, waterlines, and windbreaks." Beau Bendigo Rancher "We sat down and we made plans where we needed water—we got the water where we needed it with pipelines and big water tanks, and then we went to cross-fencing so we could utilize rotation. The cross-fencing has been tremendous once we got it in place—we can put cows in there for twenty-one days and they’ll utilize more of the pasture, and then you kick them in the next place and they have fresh grass." Chris Bohlander Rancher "We keep evolving. I know with the cross-fencing and temporary fence and water we can do a much better job, utilize that, improve—improve the diversity there. We’re also using temporary water, running pipe above ground for temporary moving cattle around. It’s exciting. I can’t get enough of it." Tanse Herman NRCS - Soil Health Specialist "Grass is abundant. That’s not by accident. When we dig a hole and study the soil. It almost has a cottage cheese type structure. That soil texture allows water to infiltrate rapidly, where water and air can freely move. That plant stand was very, very healthy and the impact of grazing was absolutely beneficial." Jody Brown Rancher “We try to leave about half the ranch stockpile winter grazing ground, we used to just cut it every year and haul it off into a stack, and now we graze it with the yearlings on a daily move. I don't see a lot of people jumping into this type of grazing. It's easy just to keep doing it the way you are, but I think a constant urge to learn is probably the best thing you can do.” Bart Carmichael Rancher “My grandpa, when he had cattle here, pretty much just grazed in the draws. We've changed that to where they go into a spot and graze it out in two or three days, and then they're moved to a new spot. We're getting them more variation, more biodiversity out there, it's a lot healthier system.” Eli Little “So when we first started with rotational grazing, we rotated cattle every five days and 45 acres and now we are down to six or seven acres sometimes, and moving them once a day, we would like to go two times a day and do a lot more intensive grazing that way. You'll really see a lot of improvement if you're able to manage that way.” Reid Suelflow Farmer “As far as my rotation, I have three different groups of pastures, and there’s several smaller pastures within each group, and I try to rest one group for the full growing season. Then I graze the other two groups. It’s much healthier than they've been in the past and just rotating them as fast as I do, it's just a cleaner environment for them, and they just seem to be doing better.” Van Mansheim “As I became more passionate about my crop lands soil health, I started hearing these things about range land. I'm starting to realize the correlation of the soil health principles and how important the livestock integration is the same way, and diversity's the same way. Keeping the soil covered with armor, having a green living plant as long as you can during the year.” Louis Bergner Rancher “A few years ago we bought a pasture up north, it’d been overgrazed for quite a few years, so that was kind of the area that I started with the cross-fencing and rotational grazing, to try and get that back into better use. There was like bare spots in the pastures and as I did the rotational grazing those bare spots would fill in and you’d notice a lot more litter on the ground there to hold the moisture.” Shad Larson “I can’t say enough good about this land. Different species of grasses and that was a learning curve on my side I’ve come along with the tours out here they put on and this was the first pasture that dad and I have ever introduced rotating. There’s always ups and downs, but let me tell you, it’s more positive than negative over here.” Kristen Johnson “I guess it is just kind of fun for me too, when we’re going out and we’re moving cattle from one pasture to the next, you can just see how it benefits both the grass and the cattle because you can see how much better nutritionally, we can offer different grasses to our cattle by letting that grass rest. And see the cows get excited. They want to come. They want that new grass.” Candice Olson-Mizera “Moving cattle calving back to April has greatly reduced stress as far as calving. And then rotationally grazing, we decided to have one bunch, to rotationally graze and trample more and have the cows be not so picky, so that they ate what they were given and then we could move them. I think we’ve seen tremendous grass improvement just because of the rest that the pastures have when you’re in a smaller area.” Brad Magness Rancher "We do rotationally graze with the object in mind that we want to utilize cool season grasses, which we have a predominance of, and rest the warm season grasses so that they don't get exclusively grazed out by continuous grazing. Our management style is probably different than a lot of people because we don't manage for profit. We manage for stewardship and have learned that if you're good stewards that is profitable." Justin Thompson Rancher "I remember Ryan coming out and advising us. It was pretty much just three pastures on that whole place. We formulated the plan and started building cross fences. And I started attending grassland schools, I got really excited about improving the range. We started changing our season of use and our rotation. I wouldn't say we're drought proofed but we can handle a dry year now and before we could not." Doug Hansen Rancher "We've been on this place since 1964. I guess restoration is in my blood. We restore wagons and, build stagecoaches and I've become more keenly interested in the restoration of the grasslands. It's a value to restore that to its native state. On the production side, as we gain a more native grasses and Forbes, we also see the production go up. So it's kind of a, win-win." Dugan Bad Warrior Rancher "I met a guy in rapid city and he says, ”I'm a grass farmer, how I harvest my grass is through cows.” And that really stood out to me. I was like, yeah, he's right. I've done some rotational grazing in smaller paddocks. When I go for a walk, now I try to look for some of the species that tell me that my grasses or my pastures are healthy. There's always better ways to manage your ground. If you just change your paradigm to see that it can be so much better for you." Van Mansheim Farmer "I'm not a rancher by any means, but the cropland is something farmers assess every day. Rangeland doesn't become a priority to a lot of guys, but I learned that we need to make it a priority. …And even with as dry as we've been, the cover crops are just flourishing because of the diversity. And I think if we can make my rangeland more diverse, we make ourselves more drought tolerant, more resilient." Reid Suelflow Farmer "I probably move my cows on average every three to four days. At times everyday… I have three different groups of pastures, and there's several smaller pastures within each group, and I try to rest one group for the full growing season, I feel like it gives some of the native species the full year break to maybe get more established because when you turn the cows out in the pasture that's the first thing they go for." Sandy Limpert Rancher "We run the buffalo herd all in one large here. We have about thirty two pastures that we rotate them through, so they're only in a pasture five six seven days, and they don't come back to that pasture till the following year, we utilize the pastures at different times every year. It's had a tremendous effect on the vigor of the plants. We've just seen tremendous differences in the pastures as opposed to the way we used to graze them." Dan Connor Rancher "I would recommend to a young producer to go with some sheep…you can run sheep were a cow wouldn't even want a be, and they're quite a little cheaper to get into, we don't over stock. we try to keep the numbers at a workable level… And they don't use all the grass, it's kind of real rule take half and leave half, and we try to follow that… Wildlife seems to have something to eat too." Simone Wind Rancher "It’s a difficult place to ranch, but it’s ours now and we’re trying to make it better. We’ve gone from the original fifteen pastures to thirty pastures ranging from 25 to 40 acres. When we’re finished we’ll have over sixty pastures. We’ve installed twenty-five miles of electric fence, mostly two-wire. We’ll have another twenty-five miles put in before the end of the project. That type of a system allows the diversity to increase. When we first got here we didn’t have a lot of diverse forage --no nettle, saltbush, or winterfat, and forbs were few and far between. Now there is much more of a diversity in our grasslands." Alan Wind Rancher "Our optimum grazing time is three to five days. We try to be in a cell and out of the cell within that period of time. That’s followed by 750 days of rest. So the rest of that grazing season we don’t go back in a second time, the next year it’s completely undisturbed, and then that third year, we try to shift the season of use." Brett Blank Game, Fish, and Parks "Years ago we used to never really manage our grasslands. They were just left idle and the diversity was not there, it was pretty much a monoculture of bluegrass and smooth brome. We started integrating cattle into our management and we’re starting to see great improvements on our grassland. There’s proof in the pudding if you just come out and look on some of these areas, the diversity in the plants, the birds, the animals. You have a lot better hunting opportunity out here because of the cattle doing what they’re doing on the ground versus if we just did absolutely nothing." Mike McKernan Rancher "This all fits all right into what I believe in and the way I like to live. I like to hunt. I like to fish. Anything I do with the cattle generally involves looking at it from the conservation side as well. I can still get good benefits, the cattle can still get me where we want to be, and I can still have good wildlife habitat. A long-term success would be having a high diversity of plants; it’s diversity. Diversity in grasses, diversity in the insects, diversity in the birds. If we’ve got multiple species of all of them out there, then I think we’re being successful." Ed Blair Rancher "We started out really small, running 45-50 head of replacement heifers and rotating that and, within four or five years I was seeing some big changes out there. I says, “Man, this works. You know, we need to start doing some more of this, the big thing that I think I’ve seen is diversity, but also groundcover. Unless the soil is really bad, we don’t have any bare spots." Stacy Turgeon NRCS Soil Health Specialist "And having cattle out on grass, rotational grazing, you know, if you’re doing it right it’s helping the water infiltrate. The water’s actually going in the ground where you want it for grass production. Introducing livestock, getting them out there and aftermath grazing, it just stimulates the soil biology and it’s really, really important to keep us sustainable and productive for the long haul." Fannie Fritz Supervisor "Everything we do is a partnership. we’ve developed a partnership with US Fish and Wildlife Service because if you have grass and you just leave it alone and you don’t do anything with it, it’s going to diminish. The best thing you can do is put livestock on grass because you have the foot action, you have the grazing, you have the interaction with the wildlife. The best thing you can do is put livestock, especially cattle, out there." Rod Voss NRCS Grazing Land Management Specialist "We know that rest grows grass, and when we’re going through a system twice through we’re taking very little amount the first time through. We’re leaving a lot of leaf area for that grass to regrow. The second time through then we can take our proper use out of that grass and still leave enough residual cover for that grass to maintain its health and vigor. It’s been good for the grass, it’s been good for the livestock, and the cooperator that’s running the cattle out here." Gene Ausland Rancher "We graze only one pasture once a year and then they rest for another year. We move cattle from anywhere from five to ten days.I'm out in a pasture every day checking grasses to see when we should move. We try to leave anywhere from four to six inches of grass standing in the pasture every year." Gary Cammack Rancher “When it comes to rotation, rotating pastures, it can be difficult to move cattle, but it's easy to let cattle move themselves. Different things that we've done over the years we can see a difference in weaning weights we can see a difference in herd health overall success in the cattle business is doing a thousand little things right.” Dan Connor Rancher “We try to manage our numbers, we don’t over stock. We don't use all the grass, and wildlife seems to have something to eat too. We put in several miles of new fence with NRCS cooperation and the BLM. It cut the size and pastures down so we rotate more, and it seems to help with the grass production.” John Rittberger “The main thing to protect us against drouth, main thing we do is always leave grass after we leave the pasture, and if we have to sell cattle or look for a land to lease, well, we've learned you've got to do it. You can't, you can't take all the grass. We rotate them through summer, but not only that, we rotate through the winter.” Charlie Totton Rancher “When we added our mob grazing, we figured out it only took half as much land to some of the cows. So instead of running twice as many cows, we extended our grazing season by four months. So now, we only feed cows two or three months out of winter instead of five or six. Same amount of cows in the same place but just a difference in management we gained, that much grazing season.” Josh Lefers “I don't think anyone's an expert on soil microbiology, the best I've found is, you look above the ground, and you look at healthy soil indicators. Digging, bringing a spade, digging your soil up and looking at soil structure and measuring that infiltration. All those things are going to give you indicators of, whether you're providing the right conditions for your soil microbiology. Ultimately what we hope to see is more production.” Britton Blair Rancher “Any ranch that we go to, has a lot of different pastures sizes, you run different herd sizes at different places. And I feel like we just stick to our basic principles and our basic way that we want the grass to look, but you’re always changing, like the number of days that you’re in a pasture and that’s really been fun.” Jack Davis Rancher “Another practice that we did was went to weaning early. We wean the 1st of September. That’s really saved on grass, and those cows, once they’re weaned, can winter pretty good on the grass and crop residue. And now that we’ve introduced cover crops, some of that, too. And the rotation has really helped bring in the natives really show that big bluestem and how that’s recovered just by having its rest and rotation.” James Erickson “It helps to have both sides, to have cattle and crops. You know, you’ve got crops to feed the cattle and the cattle to help feed the crops and your soil, to help benefit soil health and what not. And then we do a lot of stuff with cover crops to help kind of diversify everything, and that makes it a lot easier on the cattle operation, too, for grazing purposes.” AJ Heiss Cattle Manager "When I came on to the place, they just bought the ranch. We put it directly into an intensive grazing system, which my goal was to rotate, rest and recover. We basically made three pastures into 10 separate, different pastures. When we go back in every pasture, we'll get at least 90 days of rest and recovery time. The cattle have benefited from it. The pounds per gain have benefited and we've ran, I would say 40% more cattle on a rotation program as opposed to running a season long grazing." Mark Hollenbeck Rancher "We've been developing our water and fences for the better part of 10 years now, and focusing on proper management as well as our hunting business. We're always dry, but part of the reason we have grass is that we have been actively managing for grass. So all these plants that are really nutritious were grazed out and by managing, we're getting those plants to come back. We're getting them to come back by giving proper rest." Crystal Neuharth Rancher "Duane Beck always told us stop and walk out into nature and just have a look, see what she's been doing. She's been doing it best for way longer than we have. If we can take in what we're seeing, and a lot have to do with the five principles of soil health. If you can take what you learned from mother nature and apply it to what we're doing, you can become more successful and your crops and your grass should be resilient and recover well." Tyler Moore Rancher "I was recommended to go to a grazing school and that grazing school was a huge, huge part of getting to where we're at today. One thing that I really noticed… been doing a lot of grass testing, sending in grass clippings and the nutrient nutritional value of the grass when you're letting that grass rest for 60 days that top 25% of that grass holds so much more nutritional value than if you continuously graze." Abby Smikle Rancher "And from a wife and a mom perspective, I've noticed a huge difference in the way that my husband is handling the cattle herd. He knows where he's going to put them in why he's going to move that herd into that pasture. At that time, we have two boys. They're full of energy. They're fully aware of the ground around them and their dad is sharing that knowledge so that they end up with more information to make this place better than what they inherited." Dwayne Beck Rancher "The outcomes are what we're really looking for. We can't get to that outcome with no-till alone, we can't get to that outcome with cover crops alone. We can't get to that outcome, in my opinion, with rotations that aren't diverse. Can I cycle the nutrients without having a perennial? No, I don't think we can. After 20 some years, I have pretty good evidence we can’t." Stewart Schmidt Rancher "My great grandfather Charles Schmidt came here in 1910… This is a reservation…And a lot of the things that we do today really are quite similar to what they had developed early on in the 20s 30s 40s… We calve more in sync with nature… rotational grazing and moving your cattle. we try to mimic, you know, our operation on to be in sync with nature… I think that it it gets managed as a holistic operation, and I think that that's kind of where we are today." Eli Little Rancher "My dad and I have been farming together basically since I got out of college. We do corn, beans, wheat, cover crops. We have cattle and sheep, hogs, chickens, and we try to integrate everything that that we do and getting cattle out on cover crops and getting them out on all of our fields and trying to improve our soil health. it's kind of our number one priority around here." Jody Brown Rancher "Just growing more grass, giving it more time to rest, I think is a big deal and gives us more of a grass bank for a drought year. We were talking the other day about how many cattle we're running in a certain pasture we leased, and we've got it split into quarter mile strips now, and we were running about a cow to two acres in the grazing, and now, it's 1.4, so that's a real increase in production with very minimal." Alan Wind Rancher "When we bought this place we could barely run 130 pairs on the whole ranch. Now we’re running 160 pair on half the ranch and the other half is set aside for drought, it’s set aside for hailstorms, it’s set aside for just growing and resting, deeper roots, more litter, shade, less grasshoppers." Candace Olson-Mizera "We went all no-till and planted cover crops and started rotational grazing here in the last five years. We’ve really intensified our rotational grazing and use of cover crops. The cows are in a smaller area, so the rest of the pastures have all got time to grow. That’s made a huge difference; it’s just improved our lives in so many different ways that time management—and efficiencies and profitability, and just improving the water infiltration and the holding capacity. we’re just trying to drought-proof the farm is what we’re trying to do." Pete Bauman South Dakota Stat University Extension "A lot of times we think about crops, we think about regenerative agriculture. Well, there’s nothing more regenerative than the grassland, the biological relationships between the cattle, the grazing, the microbes, the fungi, their saliva, defecating, their urinating, nitrogen cycling, all of these things make just perfect sense. I think this emerging science with that relationship is really going to continue to help people understand that healthy systems need healthy animals, and vice-versa. healthy humans are part of that story as well." Bernie Davis Rancher "I come out here practically every day to take care of the cattle or do the rotating, moving cattle. When they see the four-wheelers they come to you and you can open the gate and they will pretty well go through. In the rotational grazing we try and do it about every two to three weeks, depending on the size of the pasture, and that has tremendously helped on the grasses. The cattle seem a lot better, they seem healthier, the calves seem healthier. It’s been a good thing for us to do." Jack Davis Rancher "We were counting it up here the other day, close to ten miles of fence and also probably a mile or so of waterlines. And so the water and the fence has helped us reduce the amount of hay that we’ve had to feed, and we’ve moved to using more grass for feeding and can rotate more and stockpile some for the winter, not put up as much hay. And diversity has really improved since we started making the rotations. You’re seeing more of the natives come back in, more wildlife is showing up." Kent Vlieger NRCS State Soil Health Specialist "The first years that we were out here our infiltration rates were really not good. it would take fifteen to twenty minutes for that second infiltration rate to go in. And what we just did here a few minutes ago, that second inch went on in twenty-three seconds. that means there’s very little runoff. water is staying onsite. It’s going on into the ground. A lot of it’s being intercepted by our healthy soils that we’re building here." Shad Larson Rancher "To introduce rotating into our operations, that was kind of an eye-opener for my father… I’d turn out the same time dad did, and my calves would always come home bigger because the weaning weights, as far as rotational grazing, is just phenomenal. dad and I partnered up with Ducks and Game, Fish, and Wildlife to do some fencing, and we’ve got 200 acres and 375 acres that are all cross-fenced, ready to roll. And that’s been a significant boost to our operation, as far as saving the grass." Britton Blair Rancher "I just grew up rotating pastures and just learning how to read the grass, and a take half/leave half mentality. We try to rotate every two to six days, depending on pasture size and herd sizes. It’s important to get that rest and that rotation going… Those cows love to get to that fresh pasture and love that grass, and they get pretty used to rotating. " Louie Bergner Rancher "When I first came home we had two pastures. there’s eight different paddocks now in the heifer pasture. The river pasture, I have that divided into four different sections. My plan with rotational grazing was hopefully that I would be able to survive a dry year by having the pastures in better shape so that I could make it through those dry years. And I was able to make it through." RADIO STATIONS: KOTA 1380 AM | KZZI 95.9 FM | KGFX 1060 AM | KWAT 950 AM | KDLO 96.9 FM | WNAX 570 AM | KWYR 1260 AM | KBHB 810 AM *Photos and audio courtesy of the South Dakota Grasslands Coalition. // Distribution paid for by South Dakota's Conservation Districts.