Soil Health Labs

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 message.

Shannon runs a consulting company called Native Range Resources, LLC where she consults on environmental compliance, agricultural monitoring, stormwater compliance, and integrated pest management; she also started a new company called Westslope Corporation that focuses on native prairie restoration projects.  If that’s not enough, Shannon also has a podcast called “The Business of Barrel Racing” which is available on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, Audible, Stitcher and Gaana.

Check out here podcast site at https://www.thebusinessofbarrelracing.com/ or find the podcast on your favorite podcast app.

Dr. Shaun Grassel is a wildlife biologist who works out on the Lower Brule Indian Reservation’s headquarters for the tribe’s Department of Wildlife, Fish and Recreation.  In addition, Shaun has recently taken a more active role in managing his family land in Lower Brule.

In this episode, we discuss Dr. Grassel’s work with prairie dogs and the re-introduction of the black footed ferret, the natural predator of the prairie dog.  There is a wide range of attitudes toward prairie dogs amongst ranchers and how they deal with them, and Dr. Grassel discusses this in the podcast.  There is a very interesting part where he discusses the dynamic nature of prairie dog's interactions with their predators, black footed ferrets and their interactions with livestock.

We are posting this as a special feature because we think this discussion, especially looking at re-introducing black footed ferrets into P-dog towns may be of interest to west river ranchers.

Dr. Grassel can be reached at the Lower Brule Department of Wildlife, Fish and Recreation https://www.lowerbrulesiouxtribe.com/copy-of-enviromental-protection-office

Dr. Shaun Grassel’s Research Gate profile also provides one with an insight into his research interests https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Shaun-Grassel

Also please visit the SD NRCS Range and Pasture website for more information at: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/sd/technical/landuse/pasture/

In the last seven years, the name of Joe Dickie has become more and more synonymous with high quality video that highlights outstanding farmers and ranchers in South Dakota. Many in the South Dakota agricultural community know and trust Joe, but he is a busy man and doesn’t always get to share his whole story.

Since Joe works with us at the Soil Health Labs on the SD Growing Resilience Project, we thought it would be worthwhile discussing how Joe got into videography and ended up working on so many South Dakota projects. This is not in the podcast, but did you know that at one time Joe was a DJ before he started down the visual creativity path? Joe brings with him a wonderful sense of humor and stories of some of his travels in South Dakota and elsewhere.

In this episode, which takes an unexpected turn, Joe shares about his life, and a very recent tragedy in the family, and how that tragedy has renewed his sense of purpose in spreading the good news about soil health to farmers and ranchers not only in South Dakota, but other parts of the world.

Visit Joe's website at: https://www.joedickiephotography.com/

Joe has also created the Our Amazing Grasslands Series with the SD Grassland coalition and Soil Stories with the SD Soil Health Coalition. All these videos can be found on the SD NRCS YouTube site.

Joe has also worked on the SD NOLO (Non-Operating Landowner) project and has produced many videos for this project as well as the NOLO/Tenant partnership stories. These can be found at: https://www.nolosd.org/

Also please visit the SD NRCS Range and Pasture website for more information at: https://bit.ly/SDGrasslands

In this second of two podcasts with Tanse Herrmann, State Grazinglands Soil Health Specialist in South Dakota, we discuss a number of topics including:

How can rangeland managers think about soil health principles as applied to rangeland and not just cropland?

What makes adaptive grazing managers so successful, what is their secret?

What goes on in the soil-plant-animal ecosystem and how can we use rangeland plants as carbon pumps to get more organic matter in the soil and increase soil health?

Where to start on the rotational grazing journey? Tanse ends the podcast with some advice you can’t afford to miss, so stick with it.

Tanse can be reached at the NRCS Service Center in Rapid City, SD, the Service Center guide will help you to get to his information: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/sd/contact/local/

Remember Tanse’s words – “WE WANT TO MEET PEOPLE WHERE THEY ARE” so “DON’T BE TOO PROUD TO ASK”, calling up your NRCS Service Center and Speaking to a Grazingland Specialist costs nothing. What do you have to lose?

Watch for an announcement from SD Grassland Coalition for the 2022 Grazing School https://sdgrass.org/

Watch for Soil health Workshops and Conferences at: https://www.sdsoilhealthcoalition.org/

Watch also for Ranching for Profit Schools: https://ranchmanagement.com/ranching-for-profit-school-2/

Also please visit the SD NRCS Range and Pasture website for more information at: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/sd/technical/landuse/pasture/

Dr. Shaun Grassel is a wildlife biologist who works out on the Lower Brule Indian Reservation’s headquarters for the tribe’s Department of Wildlife, Fish and Recreation.  In addition, Shaun has recently taken a more active role in managing his family land in Lower Brule.

In this episode, we discuss Dr. Grassel’s work with prairie dogs and the re-introduction of the black footed ferret, the natural predator of the prairie dog.  There is a wide range of attitudes toward prairie dogs amongst ranchers and how they deal with them, and Dr. Grassel discusses this in the podcast.  There is a very interesting part where he discusses the dynamic nature of prairie dog's interactions with their predators, black footed ferrets and their interactions with livestock.

We are posting this as a special feature because we think this discussion, especially looking at re-introducing black footed ferrets into P-dog towns may be of interest to west river ranchers.

Dr. Grassel can be reached at the Lower Brule Department of Wildlife, Fish and Recreation https://www.lowerbrulesiouxtribe.com/copy-of-enviromental-protection-office

Dr. Shaun Grassel’s Research Gate profile also provides one with an insight into his research interests https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Shaun-Grassel

Also please visit the SD NRCS Range and Pasture website for more information at: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/sd/technical/landuse/pasture/

We caught up with Tanse Hermann, NRCS’s newly appointed State Grazinglands Soil Health Specialist in South Dakota; to our knowledge, this is the first appointment of its kind in the country, and we were thrilled to talk with Tanse. Before we dive into the subjects at hand, Tanse, a man whose love for the FFA, horses, rodeo and livestock, first walks us through his own background; you’ll find that Tanse is a born teacher. In the rest of the podcast we discuss a number of questions including:

Why is soil health more emphasized in cropland than rangeland?

What makes rangeland the blueprint for soils and cropping systems?

As a seasonal grazer who feels overwhelmed with the prospect of going to rotational grazing, but who really feels it’s time to make the shift, how would Tanse or another NRCS representative talk to me?

Finally, Tanse talks about the changing definitions of what it takes to be a good farmer and rancher.

Because Tanse had so much to share, we added a second part of this interview as our next podcast, Tanse opens up with telling us how we think of the soil health principles to rangeland.

Tanse can be reached at: [email protected]

For more contact information, visit NRCS Service Center in Rapid City, SD: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/sd/contact/local/

Remember Tanse’s words – “WE WANT TO MEET PEOPLE WHERE THEY ARE” so “DON’T BE TOO PROUD TO ASK”, calling up your NRCS Service Center and Speaking to a Grazingland Specialist costs nothing. What do you have to lose?

Watch for an announcement from SD Grassland Coalition for the 2022 Grazing School https://sdgrass.org/

Watch for Soil Health Workshops and Conferences at: https://www.sdsoilhealthcoalition.org/

Watch also for Ranching for Profit Schools: https://ranchmanagement.com/ranching-for-profit-school-2/

Also please visit the SD NRCS Range and Pasture website for more information at: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/sd/technical/landuse/pasture/

In this second of two chats with rancher, Pat Guptill (Quinn, SD), we discuss how he can graze his livestock year-round and (to us, at least) the surprising link between year-round grazing and calving on grass (so when you see fawns out on the prairie, that’s the time to calve in your area). Pat’s basic philosophy on year-round grazing and calving on grass is “we can’t make our calves worth more, so we need to figure out how to raise that calf with less inputs”. Listen with us as Pat discusses how he does that in this podcast and provides some helpful tips on how one begins down the year-round grazing path. Pat also addresses weaning times, concerns like low Body Condition Score (BCS) for mama cows in March (and how that looks to others) and calf weights at market time hint: Pat’s calves may be lighter than others, but he sells more beef because his calf survival rates are so much higher.

Pat is passionate about mentoring folks who are interested in improving their land and is a board member of the SD Grassland Coalition. Pat can be contacted through the SD Grassland Coalition website (https://sdgrass.org/).

Pat is a big proponent of grazing schools and Ranching for Profit Workshops:

Watch for an announcement from SD Grassland Coalition for the 2022 Grazing School: https://sdgrass.org/

Watch for Soil Health Workshops and Conferences at: https://www.sdsoilhealthcoalition.org/

Watch also for Ranching for Profit Schools: https://ranchmanagement.com/ranching-for-profit-school-2/

In addition, we provide some video links that feature Pat:

2013 SD Leopold Award: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGsjUdScWZM

A 2014 video by SDSU visits with Pat about High Stock Density grazing (Pat doesn’t necessarily like to use the words “Mob Grazing”): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWC9qkYdDNA

In 2021, Pat and wife Mary Lou (through the SD NOLO project) discuss “Understanding the Connection: Stress Reduction

Through Soil Health”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfIJp-M1K5U

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

We catch up with Pat Guptill, rancher from Quinn, SD, Pat grazes his base herd year-round and when he has enough grass in the summer, will take on additional stockers. Pat discusses his basic operating philosophy and business model, he shares with us the number 1 thing he attends to: spoiler alert, these are livestock but not cows! Pat rotates almost daily using high stocking densities and he provides thoughts on why he wants every square inch of land covered by hooves. We discuss recovery times between his land and land that has been left bare, the use of temporary and permanent fencing as a tool. Pat is a keen observer not only of his land but his livestock and talks about “setting their plates” every day, very handy when it comes to controlling things like Canada thistle. Stockmanship is important as well, Pat talks about trust between man and animal, how he can tame new stockers on the land in a matter of days, how this helps with labor and sick livestock (which are rare in his case), and how human and animal stress can be a two-way street. Finally, we discuss some of the concrete (and to many, surprising) actions that Pat has taken to improve his soil and animal health, we include a little discussion on the many dung beetles he has on his land and how they act to recycle nutrients and help reduce fly pressure.

Pat is passionate about mentoring folks who are interested in improving their land and is a board member of the SD Grassland Coalition. Pat can be contacted through the SD Grassland Coalition website (https://sdgrass.org/).

Pat is a big proponent of grazing schools and Ranching for Profit Workshops:

Watch for an announcement from SD Grassland Coalition for the 2022 Grazing School https://sdgrass.org/

Watch for Soil Health Workshops and Conferences at: https://www.sdsoilhealthcoalition.org/

Watch also for Ranching for Profit Schools: https://ranchmanagement.com/ranching-for-profit-school-2/

In addition, we provide some video links that feature Pat:

2013 SD Leopold Award: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGsjUdScWZM

A 2014 video by SDSU visits with Pat about High Stock Density grazing (Pat doesn’t necessarily like to use the words “Mob Grazing”) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWC9qkYdDNA

n 2021, Pat and wife Mary Lou, through the SD NOLO (Non-Operating Land Owner) project, discuss “Understanding the Connection: Stress Reduction Through Soil Health” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfIJp-M1K5U

Also please visit the SD NRCS Range and Pasture website for more information at: https://bit.ly/SDGrasslands

In this podcast, we talk with Miranda Meehan, NDSU Extension Livestock Environmental Stewardship Specialist. We chat with Miranda about a wide range of subjects that include environmental stewardship and livestock-environmental interactions including: range and riparian ecology, grazing management, integrated crop livestock systems, water quality, and reclamation. Miranda grew up in the agricultural community in North Dakota and brings a practical edge to her academic work, along with a sense of intellectual humility, a fabulous quality in any human being, but important for the work in which she is engaged. While Miranda is located and works in North Dakota, we believe that ranchers in South Dakota and other places can learn form this wonderful talk we had with her. Miranda earned B.S and M.S degrees in Animal and Range Science and a Ph.D. in Natural Resource Management, all from NDSU.

Miranda’s Bio in her own words reads as follows:

“I am the Extension Livestock Environmental Stewardship Specialist in the Animal Sciences Department at North Dakota State University. My appointment is 65% extension and 35% research. Extension responsibilities include development of statewide livestock environmental stewardship program materials, conduct meetings, offer training for livestock producers, extension personnel, and other professionals in the livestock industry. The objective of my research is to increase our understanding the ecology of rangeland ecosystems and assisting landowners in managing their resources in a profitable and sustainable manner. Some of my research interests include riparian ecology and management, grazing management, integrated crop livestock systems, and the influence of energy development on livestock production.”

We include links to Miranda’s NDSU page, her research gate page (we discuss a number of her publications in the podcast, and they are available in the ResearchGate link), and her Twitter feed.

NDSU Page: https://www.ndsu.edu/agriculture/ag-home/directory/miranda-meehan

ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Miranda-Meehan

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ndsu_ex_steward

Check out free resources at the NRCS: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/sd/technical/landuse/pasture/