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, both in ranching and experimenting with growing native grasses, including big…
Soil Health Labs Ep. 36: A Rural Videographer’s Eye-Opening Journey Promoting Soil Health
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….
Soil Health Labs Ep. 33: Calving with Nature Cuts Costs for Year-Round Grazing
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…
Soil Health Labs Ep. 32: Adaptive Management Applied
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…
Soil Health Labs Ep. 31: Growing Rangeland Resilience
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…
Plug and Plant Ep. 13: Soil Structure and Conservation
This podcast is the fifth in the series 6 “Resilience” podcast series we recorded in Mitchell, SD (podcasts 1-5) and Crooks (Podcast 6), the backdrop was the extremely wet weather on 2019; at the time of recording the James River had frozen outside of it’s banks and there was every expectation of another wet summer….
Plug and Plant Ep. 09: Moisture, Rutting and Covers
This podcast is the first in the series 6 “Resilience” podcast series we recorded in Mitchell, SD (podcasts 1-5) and Crooks (Podcast 6), the backdrop was the extremely wet weather on 2019; at the time of recording the James River had frozen outside of it’s banks and there was every expectation of another wet summer….