Grazing cover crops by cattle provides an option to offset cover crop seed costs and increase farm revenue. To facilitate farmers’ decision making, this article will evaluate the economic profitability from grazing cattle on cover crops using a partial budgeting approach.
Reclaiming marginal lands, especially those considered saline or sodic can be very challenging and may take many years to accomplish. The key to turning around salt or alkali areas in your fields, begins with getting a living root established in the affected area.
There are currently millions acres across South Dakota impacted by saline and sodic conditions. Research has shown that salt-tolerant perennial grasses are a possible way to bring land back into production.
Producers need to plan in advance on how to deal with bare fields that contain an overabundance of weeds. Weeds in these fields have deposited significant amount of seeds on the soil surface, which can easily germinate when adequate moisture and temperature are available.
Incorporating cover crops into our cropping systems and moving from conventional tillage to no-till can improve soil organic matter, soil structure, and water and nutrient holding capacity of our soils.
February 20, 2020
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem has declared February 21, 2020 Soil Health Awareness Day. Agriculture contributes over 132,000 jobs and 32.5 billion dollars in total output to South Dakota’s economy.
January 13, 2020
SDSU Extension will host a Soil Health Workshop on February 13, at the Highland Conference Center in Mitchell. The event will focus on climate, weather, livestock integration, cover crops, carbon-to-nitrogen ratios and the benefits of manure for building organic matter and carbon in soil.
A guide of common dung beetles of South Dakota.
For decades scientists have known that a handful of soil contained more micro-biological organisms than the number of humans on earth. Science is just beginning to discover these organisms and learn about their functions and contribution to their soil ecosystem.
December 11, 2019
Join us for a free event that will highlight building soil and integrating livestock to farm systems in western SD. Registration is requested, event is free.