By Scout Nelson
The South Dakota Soil Health Coalition highlights the importance of building healthy soil to improve long-term farm resilience. Soil health practices help farms manage challenges such as drought, extreme temperatures, floods, and rising production costs while maintaining productivity.
Terry Ness, a farmer near Pierre, South Dakota, has spent decades working to improve the health of his soil. He began farming in 1976, but his soil health journey started in 1990 after learning about no-till research conducted by Dwayne Beck at the Dakota Lakes Research Farm.
“I think there was an article in the Dakota Farmer that was all about (Beck) moving to Dakota Lakes, and as soon as I saw that article, I went down there because I knew I wasn’t doing it the right way,” Ness said. “I had never even heard of no-till before then.”
Ness visited the research farm regularly to learn more about these practices.
“It was after talking to him that I was brave enough to just jump in with both feet and get rid of my tillage equipment and get a no-till drill,” he said. “And it worked really, really, really good with his guidance.”
Over the years, Ness added several soil health practices. He reduced tillage, kept crop residue on the soil surface, planted cover crops, and increased crop diversity. In total, he has grown more than 30 different crops on his farm. He also uses livestock grazing to help manage cover crops.
“I’ve never seen my sheep happier than when they’re grazing on the cover crops,” he said.
These practices improved soil organic matter on his farm. When Ness began farming, organic matter was just above one percent. Today, the fields he has managed with no-till for decades average about four percent.
Higher organic matter improves soil structure and helps the soil hold water. Each one percent increase in soil organic matter can help land store about 20,000 more gallons of water per acre.
Ness has also reduced fertilizer use over time. “When I first started, I was putting on 100 pounds of actual nitrogen and 60 pounds of phosphorus,” he said.
Even during dry years, his fields often maintain stable yields because water stays in the soil instead of running off.
“For 36 years, I’ve had zero runoff,” he said.
Experts say regenerative practices like no-till, crop diversity, and cover crops can help farms adapt to changing weather conditions.
“I think regenerative ag practices serve multiple purposes, and one of those is to be more resilient in the face of extreme weather,” Edwards said. “I tell people we don’t need to invent a new toolbox to survive a changing climate. We already have that toolbox with regenerative agriculture or soil health practices.”
Farmers interested in learning more about soil health practices can contact the South Dakota Soil Health Coalition at sdsoilhealth@gmail.com or 605-280-4190.
Photo Credit: pexels-jan-kroon
Categories: South Dakota, Crops, General