In this insightful episode, Tate Lantz joins hosts Joe Dickie and Buz Kloot to discuss the Central Grasslands Roadmap. Lantz shares his personal journey from a childhood on a South Dakota cattle ranch to his current role in conservation, reflecting a deep connection to the grasslands. Tate grew up on a cattle ranch near Winner, SD and after high school attended SDSU majoring in range science. His career began at the Conservation District in Kingsbury County, after which he joined the NRCS...

Most folks have heard of the Haney test, but who are the people behind the test, what is the test and how did it all get started? In this episode, Buz Kloot and Joe Dickie talk to Drs. Liz and Rick Haney both soil scientists who live in Texas. Rick and Liz met during their graduate studies at Texas A&M – he was doing his PhD at the time and Liz her Masters. We begin by asking about the philosophy behind the Haney test and Rick walks us through his background as a farmer, student and...

In this podcast, Buz Kloot, Joe Dickie, and Gabe Brown discuss Gabe's motivation behind his mission to help farmers and ranchers. Gabe shares that his dedication to the mission was solidified during the three years of extreme difficulties he faced. At that time, there were few resources for farmers and ranchers to learn about the principles, rules, and processes required for regenerative agriculture. Gabe felt a calling to help others avoid the difficulties he faced and made a commitment to...

We were delighted to get back with Pete Bauman who is a Natural Resources and Wildlife Field Specialist for SDSU Extension. Pete specializes in range, pasture, and grassland management with an emphasis on educating producers about how profitability and ecological balance are complimentary. Pete’s focus areas include alternative grassland management tools such as fire, biological control, controlled grazing, and reduction of inputs for systems health. We got together specifically to discuss...

Barry and Eli Little are a father and son team farming near Castlewood, SD located in the eastern part of South Dakota. Together they have close to 1600 acres of crop land, and farm this along with another 1300 acres of Barry’s brother’s land. Though cropland is still the centerpiece of their business model, Barry and Eli run close to 500 head of cattle – while they have 800 acres of dedicated pasture, their operation is designed for the integration of livestock. In the previous episode,...

Barry and Eli Little are a father and son team farming near Castlewood, SD located in the eastern part of South Dakota. Together, they have close to 1600 acres of cropland, and farm this along with another 1300 acres of Barry’s brother’s land. While cropland is still the centerpiece of their business model, Barry and Eli run close to 500 head of cattle – and though they have 800 acres of dedicated pasture, their operation is designed for the integration of livestock into their operation. ...

We sat down to chat with Chris Coreil, now the National Erosion Specialist based at the NRCS’s Central National Technology Support Center in Fort Worth, TX. Chris is originally from Louisiana where he was state agronomist for ten years before going to Fort Worth. On May 12, 2022, a derecho wind hit eastern South Dakota and west central Minnesota (see May 12 derecho summary below. Note that a derecho (pronounced similar to "deh-REY-cho") is a widespread, long-lived windstorm where damage is...

In this podcast, Buz Kloot talks to Dan Mehlhaf, District Conservationist for the USDA NRCS, currently stationed at Yankton, South Dakota. Dan was raised on a farm and has a degree in agriculture from South Dakota State University and he actively farms with his son on land they own in Hutchinson County, about 30 miles from his work. The discussion centers around Dan’s experience in April and May 2022, that culminated in the May 12, 2022, windstorm (or derecho) that occurred in South Dakota....

As part of our adaptive grazing management series (if you haven’t listened to the podcasts with Justin Thompson and Candice Mizera, we highly recommend the listen, especially if you are in South Dakota and want to understand more about cool season invasive grasses) Joe Dickie and Buz Kloot sat down with Allen Williams who is an adaptive grazing management practitioner, consultant and former academic. Allen grew up and went to school in the south and after his PhD, continued for 15 years in...

If you have not yet listened to the previous podcast with Justin Thompson we strongly recommend you do before listening to this one. The first release of this podcast was set to coincide with the spring thaw and the green-up of cool season grasses and forbs. One of the biggest threats to South Dakota rangeland is the increasing prevalence of three cool season invasive species, in particular, smooth brome, Kentucky bluegrass and crested wheatgrass. We spoke to Candice Mizera from...

The first release of this podcast was set to coincide with the spring thaw and the green-up of cool season grasses and forbs. One of the biggest threats to South Dakota rangeland is the increasing prevalence of three cool season invasive species, namely smooth brome, Kentucky bluegrass and crested wheatgrass. Please also see below Justin’s correspondence post interview of things he wishes he’s emphasized more. Our oft-repeated mantra of rotate-rest-recover and our regenerative instinct...

“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 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...

“You look at soil health… the tenets don't change, right, the tenets of those five things, will remain truthful, now, [and] in 10 years from now, I would hope, right? And that's kind of how I try to approach my outreach.” We were delighted to get together with Pete Bauman who is a Natural Resources and Wildlife Field Specialist for SDSU Extension. Pete specializes in range, pasture, and grassland management with an emphasis on educating producers about how profitability and ecological...

Get Ready to take Advantage of the Climate-Smart Practice Incentives. In this special podcast episode, we get together with the South Dakota NRCS’s Jessica Michalski and Kent Vlieger to discuss what the upcoming climate smart agriculture and forestry package looks like, what we know, and as of December 2022, what we also don’t yet know. NRCS uses conservation practices to do business with their farmers, ranchers and foresters and in the last two years, many of those conservation...

“.. everything works together. The more diverse a pasture or grassland is, the healthier it is, the more resilient it is to any disturbance that comes at it. So, if we can have that diversity it’s going to reduce the inputs needed and the landscape can be more resilient as well”. - Emily Helms USDA-NRCS’s State Rangeland Management Specialist in South Dakota. If you find yourself in a meeting or in the field where farmers or ranchers are demonstrating or discussing good grazing practice...

It is a rare pleasure to speak with a person of consequence and have their undivided attention for an hour. Ray Archuleta, who needs little introduction, has been a person of consequence in the lives of Buz Kloot (Soil Health Labs at the University of South Carolina) and Tanse Herrmann, NRCS Grazing Lands Soil Health Specialist working out of Rapid City, South Dakota. In this podcast, Buz and Tanse host Ray Archuleta and catch up with him, but before that, both Buz and Tanse tell their...

In this, our second chat with Bart Carmichael, rancher out of Faith SD, we quizzed Bart on his approach to year-round grazing where Bart walks us through why he aims to graze year-round, what he does to make this possible and what benefits he sees from this practice. Given the dry conditions experienced at the time of the podcast, the conversation also turned to drought; Bart is always planning for drought he agrees with fellow rancher Pat Guptill who says (paraphrased) “when we call it a...

We’re excited to introduce our good friend, Shannon Kulseth-Iverson. Shannon is a native of North Dakota and ranches with her husband, Eric Iverson and her three teenage children out of White River, SD. We caught up with Shannon (yes, she is always on the move) and talked about ranching, native range restoration, and her work as a consulting biologist. Shannon is passionate about rangeland and the environment, and because of her diverse background, she has a really important...