Education

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 Blioux River Ranch located northwest of Castlewood, SD. Blioux River Ranch is a diverse grain and livestock operation with decades of conservation history that turned into true passion for soil health over the past 10 years.Clay Conry, of Working Cows Podcast, moderated the webinar. Clay initially asked each rancher how they manage drought on their ranches. Then participants in the webinar followed up with questions for Jim and Alejandro.

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, South Dakota.
Clay Conry, of Working Cows Podcast, moderated the webinar. Clay initially asked each rancher how they manage drought on their ranches. Then participants in the webinar followed up with questions for Jim and Alejandro.

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. A better idea: strategically place them in the field with temporary fences and bring the cows to them to “bale graze” in the winter. No need any more to start the tractor up on cold winter days! Read more from our newsletter….

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 several types of CRP programs. The Grassland Conservation Reserve Program is specifically aimed at livestock producers who want to use the land for grazing and enhancing biodiversity.

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. Holistic Resource Management training is helpful in refining your goals.

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% or about 98 million acres of the original North American grassland biome is still intact. A large percentage of those grasslands are privately owned, working lands. Helping grassland managers score a profit is an important part of sustaining that biome into the future.
“Lack of economic information is a major obstacle to conservation success,” said Dirac Twidwell, Professor and Rangeland Ecologist at the University of Nebraska.

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 predetermined decisions to manage the land and livestock resources before it is too late.

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 whether to begin selling livestock. It’s all part of preparing for drought–South Dakota ranchers know better than anyone that the next drought could be right around the corner.