The Grazing Schools are designed to help ranchers implement improved grazing planning. Each 3 day school is led by experienced land managers and agency professionals.

American agriculture is in the beginning of one of the largest transfers of land and wealth in the nation’s history. Only 30% of family farms/ranches survive to the second generation....

The Aldo Leopold Award for Conservation has been given in South Dakota for 15 years now. The 2024 recip- ients are father and son duo Barry and Eli Little of...

The South Dakota Grassland Coalition recently sponsored a webinar with guests Alejandro Carril- lo and Jim Faulstich. Alejandro ranches in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico and Jim ranches near Highmore,...

It’s not cost-effective to haul bales in from the field in the summer, just to turn around and haul them back to the herd through the snow in the winter....

One of the issues contributing to keeping grass right side up is the unbalanced grassland vs. cropland revenue competition. Most producers are familiar with the Conservation Reserve Program. There are...

Part 3 covers overcoming personal obstacles that are keeping you from achieving your ranch goals. It is important to note that ranch goals are an important part of grazing planning....

The SD Grasslands Summit in Oacoma on March 18 and 19 featured several speakers and a panel focusing on the financial aspect of keeping grass right side up. Only 16%...

Drought planning is an important component of ranch management. A good drought plan should have a series of critical “trigger dates” in which the manager evaluates climate information and makes...

By this time of year, in March, producers who are experienced in developing and updating grazing plans and drought contingency plans have already reached their first trigger date decision on...

Farming through saline soils and treating them the same as the rest of the field wastes inputs and produces lower yields, and results in a drag on overall field profits....

If there is a “silver bullet” in ranching, it is building and maintaining healthy soil in rangeland. Heathy soil in pastures drives profit, holds water around plant roots, in- creases...

The Grazing Exchange, initiated by the SDSHC, is a way to get livestock integrated into cropland and providing rest to grasslands. In addition, it also is a way to connect...

Despite its numerous benefits, many cattle farmers are still hesitant to adopt rotational grazing due to several misconceptions and fears. In this blog post, we will explore some of the...

Rotational grazing creates healthier pastures by allowing time for plants to rest & recover after being bit by livestock.

It’s often said “you cannot manage something that has not been measured”. The late Peter Drucker, founder of modern business management theory often stressed thisprinciple. The same can be applied...

Native and exotic plants have many values that label them as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, but assessing the value of plant diversity in pastures is worth the effort.

How to incorporate new technology into a ranching operation takes a bit of time and ingenuity. Several producers shared their perspective for this article.

Holistic Ranch Management Helps With Economic And Climate Resilience

The Bird Conservancy of the Rockies and South Dakota Grassland Coalition have a shared view: native grasslands of North America are one of the most imperiled ecosystems in the world...

Flash grazing in the spring is kind of like finding lost money in the couch cushion.

Whether the goal is having a uniform group of calves to sell or avoiding hot weather during late spring calving, keeping the calving season within a narrow window can add...

The most efficient method of keeping predators away from small livestock such as sheep is to employ guardian animals.

Start small and see big payoff with the benefits of regenerative practices

As grassland resources across the northern prairies continue to decline, it is important to manage what remains as efficiently as possible. The most common practice used to manage grasslands is...

Like any new technology, the cost should decrease over time. Some issues of concern which still exists for many were the cybersecurity of the system and who owns these data?...

Devoting resources, creating new partnerships, and recognizing the potential impact on marginal lands across the state of South Dakota is what created the Every Acre Counts Program. South Dakota State...

SD Grassland Coalition Grown substantially over the last decade with the generous support of partner organizations that share in the mission and vision of the Coalition. There have been many...

the first cross fences Consisted of steel posts and barb wire went in at Rock Hills Ranch in 1985. After stringing what probably amounts to several thousand miles of fence...

I’ve lived in the Great Plains for 30 years and you would think I would be used to the wacky weather we have here in South Dakota. However, each year...

Rotational grazing Creates soil health which promotes plant growth. Increased soil health leads to greater drought tolerance. If you have historically season long grazed, the pastures will respond positively, over...

It’s no secret that ag inputs can be hard to find and expensive. Fencing supplies are a good example. I visited with Reed Cammack at Cammack Supply at Union Center...

The current drought of 2021-2022 is in progress Most ranches have started implementing their drought plans by selling off less desirable classes of cattle. Based on NOAA`s monthly long range...

We recently attended the ND Grazing Lands Coalition Succession Planning Workshop. This event was sponsored by the National Grazing Lands Coalition and the ND Grazing Lands Coalition. Marissa Nehlsen’s Freedom...

UPDATE ON 2022 LANDOWNER PRESCRIBED FIRE WORKSHOPS Landowner workshop dates are April 27th & 28th at the SDSU Extension Office at Mitchell Tech and June 2nd & 3rd at the...

the trail boss by Charles M. Russell, is the logo of the Society for Range Management (SRM). This famous painting depicts the cowboy watching over cattle as they are driven...

in 2022 It is not hard to find a ranch mentor who is feeding the soil to create more productive rangeland. Glenn Elzinga, Bob Kinford, and Gabe Brown are just...

One of our board members recently posed a question about the carbon cycle and fire. The concern is that fire obviously releases carbon into the atmosphere that might otherwise be...

Ranching in the northern Great Plains is a tough place to work, especially in the winter. Traditional winter feed costs can make up 60% or more of the annual cow...

Late summer rains in much of the state have boosted cool-season grasses extending fall grazing, but many producers harvested a minimal amount of hay to get them through the winter....

Fall is a great time to monitor your pasture resources and get a picture of how the grazing season went. It might be discouraging to do this in a drought...

Eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana L.) A native tree to the eastern half of the US. It has been slowly spreading into the Great Plains over the last 100 years....

We’re in our third year of custom grazing sheep at Rock Hills Ranch. Our pastures have a diverse mix of grass, forbs, and shrubs, some of which cattle won’t consume....

Increasing stocking rates is the goal of every land manager wanting to keep the wolf away from the doorstep. That is just about all of us. However, we are limited...

With the expanding drought conditions across Western South Dakota, there are increased concerns about livestock water quality. One water quality concern stems from the algae blooms on stock dams. The...

During drought years it is often easier to observe the differences between warm-season and coolseason plants. This is especially true in July. I have been collecting biomass samples every two...

Rotational grazing has become an important management tool in the grazing livestock industry. This practice has been tested on tens of thousands of farms and ranches for over 50 years....

Joshua Dukart North Dakota Holistic Resource Management trainer, at a recent HRM school in Faith said “our ranching business should be designed to focus on identifying and pursuing opportunities. With...

introduction Drought is a relatively common occurrence in the central and northern Great Plains. Spring drought (April-June) occurs 19-35% of the time in our region (see Smart et al. 2021...

Choosing the calving season is a complex and highly individual decision for each beef cattle producer. This leads to a wide range of calving seasons across the Northern Plains. Various...