(SDSU) recently created
the first of its kind degree
in precision agriculture.
In addition, working
collaboratively with the South
Dakota Habitat Conservation
Foundation and NRCS, SDSU
launched the Every Acre Counts
project in December 2018
in an effort to quantify how
conservation of marginal lands
will actually increase farm
productivity and income.
“The primary focus for this
project will be the optimal use
of marginal lands impacted by
wet conditions, saline or sodic
soils and eroded areas such as
hilltops,” stated Barry H. Dunn,
SDSU president, when the
project was launched. “Millions
of acres of cropland across
South Dakota are impacted by
these challenges, with over 7
million acres impacted by saline
conditions alone. The financial
burdens of attempting to
produce crops in these marginal
areas can be negative to a
producer’s bottom line. And,
together, we want to change
this.”
PF has joined in the effort
through a unique program
launched at the 2018 Pheasant
Fest in Sioux Falls. Its Saline
Soils Initiative, in partnership
with the South Dakota Corn
Growers, focuses on croplands
in former wetland areas where
water no longer moves up and
down through the soil column
creating a clay pan with calcium
bicarbonate on the surface.
The initiative pays landowners
a one-time incentive payment
to take these areas out of
production and provides free seeds to
plant the areas with salt tolerant native
perennial vegetation. Matt Morlock, PF’s
South Dakota state coordinator, notes
that they have enrolled nearly 4,000
acres, and the contracts are averaging 40-
acre blocks that typically tie in to larger
blocks of protected wetland habitats.
All of these efforts fit within South
Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s Second
Century Initiative, a program that was
part of her campaign platform. The
initiative recognizes the important
impact that pheasant hunting has on the
state and directs state engagement on
habitat conservation programs like the
Saline Soils Initiative, SHIPP, Every
Acre Counts, working and private lands
habitat programs and more; the initiative
also includes a component to reduce nest
predators. In addition, the state created
a Habitat Pays website (www.habitat.
sd.gov) which provides online resources
to engage more landowners as habitat
partners.
These partnership and outreach
efforts are beginning to take root. SteveHalverson runs a diversified operation in
Kennebec, southeast of Pierre. He raises
cattle; harvests corn, soybeans and milo;
and operates a pheasant hunting lodge.
In addition, he is active with the South
Dakota Wheat and Corn Growers and
served on the governor’s pheasant habitat
working group.
“Conservation and production
agriculture can and do go hand in hand,”
Halverson concludes. “Some don’t
believe it, but the efficiencies of targeting
marginal areas can reduce overall input
costs while also improving habitat.”A new conservation focus employs precision agricultural practices to target very specific areas of an operation that are the least
productive or require significant input costs. The Saline Soils Initiative, launched by Pheasants Forever and the South Dakota Corn
Growers, is helping farmers to target unproductive areas of their fields that have high soil salinity and to replant these areas with
salt-tolerant native vegetation, creating excellent pheasant habitat. (Photos/Pheasants Forever)