PUKWANA, SD — For 32 years, Larry Wagner has focused on implementing rotational grazing practices on his ranch near Pukwana, South Dakota. As a board member of the South Dakota Rangelands Coalition, Wagner shared some of his knowledge by hosting a rangeland walk on May 21.
Larry Wagner, rancher near Pukwana, South Dakota.
Kennedy Tesch/Agweek
Wagner has about 135 head of cattle and uses direct marketing to sell his grass-fed and grass-finished beef. He runs his cattle on land that was once used as cropland but has since been converted back to native warm-season grass, a transition he said took about five years.
“My favorite combination is big bluestem, Indian grass and side oats; I think it’s a great combination,” he said.
Another change Wagner implemented that is considered unusual for many ranchers across the state was changing the calving season from early March to May.
“It’s just incredible what changes. “When warm weather hits, you don’t realize how much it changes, how much you reduce your workload,” she said. “One thing you never think about is that you have a lot more daylight and you’re not in the dark.”
Jenita Derga, private consultant at Wild Prairie Solutions.
Kennedy Tesch/Agweek
Jenita Derga, a private consultant with Wild Prairie Solutions, helped coordinate the pasture walk and works closely with ranchers on grazing management and strategies to increase profitability without depleting their pasture resources.
“I can be here and talk about plants, soil and meet with ranchers and just encourage conversations, which is what pasture walks are really about, is just getting people to talk within a network of like-minded people. people who may be doing a management that they are also doing or a management that they want to start trying for one reason or another,” Derga said.
“The pasture walk was really for people to come and see how Larry was calving,” he said. “So there’s a lot of conversations about that and then we also talk about grassland ecology and soil biology and really, why, in addition to calving in May, Larry has a diverse grazing system. So he moves cattle frequently throughout the year to combat any overgrazing or any detrimental effects we would have on our system so that he can essentially grow more grass.”
Derga also had pasture walk participants cut an ounce of grass. This activity demonstrated how growing one more ounce of forage per square yard equals 300 pounds per acre, which can then equal one extra cow per 40 acres each year.
Derga had participants cut an ounce of grass to show how growing just one more ounce of grass per acre can increase your productivity.
Kennedy Tesch/Agweek
“Simply increasing that much smaller amount could create the ability for any producer who has cattle to have the ability to have more cows on the same land base without having to find a new lease or purchase land or any of the expenses that that entails,” Derga said.
Increasing productivity on land that producers already own can become a strategy to increase profitability in many operations.
“When I work with ranchers through consulting and their grazing system, we talk about how we can grow more grass and many times, the question that comes up is, ‘How can I raise more cows?'” Or “how can I get another lease” or “how can I afford to buy land?” And it’s really not about any of that,” Derga said. “We just need to grow more grass on the land we already have. So it’s kind of a mindset change, getting people to think that maybe I shouldn’t think I need more. land or that I need to raise more cows, I just need to grow more grass and, you know, let nature take over from there.”
Derga notes that when it comes to pasture management, the ultimate goal is a diverse system and can be achieved by offering rest and recovery to the different plant species a pasture may contain.
The various systems also affect soil health.
Kennedy Tesch/Agweek
“Having that diversity can extend our grazing season beyond what it would be in a monoculture. So that’s always the goal of these systems and that diversity encourages diversity within our soil profile, and we can never really have a complete conversation about proper grazing management without also talking about our soils,” he said.
While the term “intensive grazing management” may be somewhat intimidating to those who think it involves moving cows every day or putting up temporary fencing, Derga said it is not always as labor-intensive as you might think and can be extremely beneficial with The changing weather conditions experienced across the state.
“That rest and recovery just allows the system to become much more resilient. In my experience, there usually comes a time when people get this information. They say, yeah, I want to do this and then they start somewhere and then they go on to this point of getting into what I would consider this intensive management system and putting in a lot of work to become really efficient at grazing, and then they usually do it for a couple. of years and then they usually leave it, they really want to find that line,” he said.
Derga said when producers can find that line, they often harvest as much as possible on that land and get the most economic benefit from their pastures.
On the other hand, producers have the ability to return to their drought plan during dry years, which may include those daily movements, without having to sacrifice productivity.
“We don’t want to have to sell cows. If we increase that efficiency by adding additional labor, we can do it and not have to sell cows and then next year they can go back to a normal year and that’s a really beautiful thing to see,” Derga said.
The South Dakota Grasslands Coalition has several upcoming events, including the Grasslands Walk.
Contributed / South Dakota Grasslands Coalition
The South Dakota Rangeland Coalition has several upcoming events that producers can attend to learn more about rangeland management. You can find more information on their website.
Kennedy is an Agweek reporter based in South Dakota. He grew up on an organic farm where his family also raises cattle in eastern South Dakota. He graduated from South Dakota State University in 2023 with a major in agricultural communications and a minor in agricultural business. He enjoys connecting with producers and agribusinesses throughout the region while reporting on all things agriculture.
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