Dr. Cody Zilverberg is not your ordinary rangeland scientist who grew up on the ranch knowing this was exactly what he wanted to do. Cody’s path was somewhat more circuitous – he grew up in Central South Dakota on a registered beef cattle ranch that his parents, brother, and sister-in-law still operate. Cody studied computer science at St. John's University in Collegeville, MN and had no intention of returning to agriculture. It was in Guatemala, where Cody experienced hand-planting corn that he came to rethink agriculture. Cody returned to study Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M then went to Texas Tech where he received his PhD in studying crop livestock systems. Cody’s PhD and postdoctoral work put him in a unique position to help Dakota Lakes Research Farm’s quest to find ways to integrate (or re-integrate) livestock back into cropping systems.

In this podcast, Cody walks us through some of the methods that Dakota Lakes has been looking at in terms of livestock integration as a tool to make more money on and to improve the land while being mindful of the fact that in South Dakota weather, especially rainfall is so often a limiting factor. Subjects we discuss include swath grazing, bale grazing, grazing of cover crops, grazing in snow conditions, nutrient recycling and soil biology amongst other things.

In our next podcast, we’ll continue to chat with Cody about using perennials in cropping systems and reestablishing native grass systems.

Apart from links to Dakota Lakes, we include a link to Cody’s Research Gate page which gives one an idea of his background and interests.

Cody Zilverberg Research Gate page - https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Cody-Zilverberg

Livestock Integration at the Dakota Lakes Research Farm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Eyq93SqnNc

Dakota Lakes Research Farm - http://www.dakotalakes.com/

Dakota Lakes Virtual Field Day - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc66Z_FEyOM&list=PLTZDoxH1GkisubbRzKxg2XA_PIzzPE8PM&index=1

Check out free resources at the NRCS: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/site/sd/home/