No Till Notes: 'Different Approaches, Part 2'

I’d like to continue visiting about our tour of the Burleigh County Soil District near Bismarck, N.D., that a group of producers from our region went on a few weeks ago. I find the approach the producers in this region are taking to improve soil health is something we can all learn from. These producers are taking the steps down the path toward improving the health of the soil they have on their farms and ranches.

After enjoying a lunch at the Menoken Soil Health Research farm south of Bismarck, we continued on our tour to the Small Angus Ranch operated by Mike and Becky Small and their two young daughters. Mike and Becky began making changes to their operation four years ago and have seen a dramatic increase in the production on their farm/ranch.

Mike and Becky’s operation consists of 2,000 acres of rangeland in six pastures along with 800 acres of cropland. The pastures had season-long grazing on them. Hay was baled from the meadows and removed from the hayfield. The cropland was no-till corn and tillage for all other crops. The corn was chopped for silage and all small grain residue was baled for livestock feed.

The end result of multiple years of removing carbon from the land was poor soil conditions with bare soil and erosion evident throughout their pastures and cropland. Productivity on their hay meadows, pastures and cropland had declined over the years and they knew it was time to make a change.

Mike and Becky worked with the Burleigh County Soil District team to come up with a conservation plan to begin building soil health on their land. They started down the path to soil health by implementing rotational grazing on their pastureland, feeding the hay bales in the meadows where they were baled and adopting no-till crop production with forage crops for grazing as part of their crop rotation. They began returning carbon to their soil.

The Smalls implemented rotational grazing by dividing their six former pastures into 36 paddocks for grazing. They cross-fenced pastures and installed underground pipeline to several centrally located tanks that can be accessed from multiple pastures. The goal is to have fewer than two weeks of grazing on each paddock with at least a 90-day recovery period following the short-term grazing.

Since they began their rotational grazing plan, they’ve observed increased productivity on their rangeland. The Smalls have also noticed a shift in the vegetation growing in their pastures as more plant species native to the rangeland have come back in increasing numbers. While we were there touring their operation, they still had pastures that hadn’t been grazed this summer because of the increased productivity of their rangeland.

Mike and Becky also added forages to their continuous no-till crop rotation. They plant these diverse mixtures of forages – both legumes and grasses – to increase their soil microbiology and feed their soil. They utilize these forages for fall and winter grazing and weaning of their calves.

The Smalls also planted a small acreage of their farm to a diverse mixture of flowering plants to attract pollinators onto their farm. They are looking at the long-term benefit to the environment on their farm and ranch. North Dakota is one of the leading states in honey production. The loss of habitat for the bees has had a detrimental effect on honey production. A neighbor to the north of their farm has a colony of bees. The Smalls are looking at the environment on their farm as a whole and decided planting the pollinators would be a positive step forward in improving their environment. At some point they may also add bee hives to their operation as a 4-H project for their daughters.

I left Mike and Becky Small’s operation really impressed with the innovative approach they’ve adopted to make a positive impact on their farm and ranch. They are making the changes necessary to improve the health of the soil on their range and cropland. They have also viewed their operation as an opportunity to impact the environment as a whole in their community. They’re truly good stewards of their land.