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Deadline: open until filled with first consideration 1/30/2025Salary Range CG FH: $18.56/hour - $20.88/hour depending upon qualifications, plus benefits 12 months, 100% timeLooking for a rewarding career with great benefits and paid time off? The South Dakota State...
Join us for the 2025 Dakota Lakes Annual Meeting, to be held at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025 at the Casey Tibbs Rodeo Center, 210 Verendrye Dr., Ft. Pierre, SD. We'll share the latest research updates from the field, hold board member elections, announce the 2025...
Get updates on Dakota Lakes’ pasture renovation project, showing how the results were impacted by different treatments, such as seeded vs. not seeded, early grazing vs. no early grazing, and herbicide application vs. no herbicide applied.
If you’ve been paying attention to South Dakota’s grasslands, you’re probably aware that one of the greatest threats to the health of the state’s prairies is the largely unchecked invasion of non-native (exotic) species such as smooth bromegrass, Kentucky bluegrass,...
This past fall, just like every fall for the past 40 years, the crew at Dakota Lakes got some spring wheat in the ground. But wait – isn’t spring wheat supposed to be planted in the … spring? According to former manager Dr. Dwayne Beck, the practice he calls dormant...
Join us for our Field Day on June 27! South Dakota State University’s Dakota Lakes Research Farm (DLRF) will host its annual field day on June 27, 2024. It will begin at 3:00 PM (CST) and run until dark. Two field tours will be offered (each lasting roughly 1.5 hours,...
Please welcome the newest member of the Dakota Lakes Research Farm Board of Directors, Blake Foxley! Blake is representing District 1 in the south-central part of the state. Blake was raised in Platte, South Dakota, where he grew up working on his family’s grain...
By Julia Gerlach Congratulations to former Dakota Lakes graduate student Clarence Winter on the successful completion of his master’s degree in plant science from South Dakota State University (SDSU). We wish you well as you embark on your next adventure as an...
A little over 40 years ago, a group of farmers decided to start a farmer-owned agricultural research farm in central South Dakota. Despite many challenges, these farmers rallied behind their vision and raised the necessary funds. In January of 1990 the Dakota Lakes...
By Julia Gerlach Cover crops are frequently praised for improving soil function, reducing erosion, and suppressing weeds, along with the other soil health benefits they provide. But finding a way to convert them from an expense to a profitable enterprise can sometimes...
Just like people, wildlife needs food, shelter, and water not just to survive but to thrive. The farming practices we follow at Dakota Lakes nurture a robust ecosystem that provide for the needs not only of the deer and pheasants that are popular with local hunters and nature enthusiasts but also a diverse range of species that ideally keeps pests at bay naturally without the need for intensive pesticide intervention.
Much of the nutrient acquisition in plants is mediated by microbes, so soils that are home to a rich diversity of microbial life are better equipped to provide plants with their required nutrition effectively and efficiently. Recent studies have shown foods, including meat, grown under regenerative farming practices contain higher levels of certain vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals than those grown under conventional farming practices. While the science behind these studies is complex and sample sizes are small and highly variable, preliminary results suggest that regenerative practices can enhance the nutritional profile of many of the foods we eat.
Carbon is one of the best water filters known to man, and regenerative farming practices like no-till, cover crops, and livestock integration help to maintain or even increase soil carbon levels. Plants serve as natural “carbon pumps,” bringing carbon in from the atmosphere by way of photosynthesis and feeding it to soil microbes in the form of exudates. In addition, plants take up and hold onto nutrients that are mineralized in the soil, so keeping living roots in the ground for as much of the year as possible goes a long way to preventing nutrient runoff into local waterways.
By following diverse cropping rotations, keeping a living root in the ground as much as possible, integrating livestock, maintaining good soil armor, and keeping soil disturbance to a minimum, we are nurturing the soil microbiome and providing favorable conditions for the bacteria, fungi, nematodes, protozoa, insects, earthworms, and other living creatures that call the soil their home. Just a teaspoon of healthy soil can contain billions of microbes and our goal is to promote a natural, balanced environment that allows them to thrive.
