By Janelle Atyeo
for South Dakota Soil Health Coalition

PIERRE, SD – Judging by the number of pheasants stirred up from his fields during corn harvest, Craig Stehly was anticipating a bountiful hunting season.

He attributes that to the weather, a good hatch this spring, and also to the green he sees in his fields growing amongst the brown corn stalks.

Craig and his brother Gene Stehly farm around Mitchell, South Dakota. For the last couple of years, they’ve planted corn with a row of cover crops in between. The green skip row provides a haven for pheasants and a buffet for deer late into the fall.

There are lasting benefits for the farm, as well.

“We really enjoy the wildlife on our farm, and we see a lot of benefits for soil health,” Craig Stehly said.

The Stehlys planted two rows of corn, 22 inches apart, then skipped a row. When they made a pass through the field with fertilizer in June, they broadcast a mix of crimson clover, radish, oats and annual rye grass seeds over the skip row. The clover will help fix nitrogen in the soil and allow the brothers to apply less when the field is planted back to corn next spring.

Cover crops satisfy a few of the principles of good soil health, providing an armor to protect soil, a living root to feed microbes below ground and a diversity beyond the straight corn and soybean rotation.

They also allow producers to integrate livestock onto cropland while giving pastures time to recover from grazing. That rest leads to better pasture health in the spring as well as offering great nesting habitat for pheasants, said Eric Magedanz, senior private lands habitat biologist with South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks.

Once the chicks hatch, cover crops give the brood a place to hide from predators. A diversity of plants brings a diversity of insects for young birds needing protein for rapid growth. Pheasant chicks hatched in a more diverse landscape have a better chance of survival, Magedanz said.

Wildlife was scarce when the Stehly brothers returned to their family farm after college.

“I saw one pheasant that year. That was all that was left,” Craig said. “We went from thousands to one.”

It was a drastic decline from Craig’s first hunting season in the 1960s, a period during which their dad set aside acres for the Soil Bank Program. The Eisenhower administration launched that program to address surplus commodities, boost farm income and conserve land that was prone to erosion.

When long-term conservation contracts expired in the 1970s and farmers were called to grow for a global market, they took up the practice of farming fence row to fence row.

“We took all the Soil Bank out, and any habitat whatsoever was destroyed,” Gene Stehly said. “It absolutely decimated the pheasant population as well.”

Today, most people adopt soil health practices to increase organic matter in the soil, allow for better water infiltration or grow more bushels, Gene said, “but to us, the wildlife is important.”

Healthy habitat and profitable farms can coexist, and diversity is key.

The Stehlys started growing cover crops in the 1990s and now aim to plant a third of their acres to covers. They grow food plots and pollinator habitat, in addition to a cover crop mix after wheat harvest and cereal rye after corn.

They’ve seen the rye become a spot for nesting waterfowl in the spring. The mix of radish, turnip, rapeseed, oats, flax and clover is popular with deer through the winter. The animals paw through the snow to dig up radishes and turnips.

“Having that ground cover, the wildlife flourish. There’s a place for them to get out of the weather,” Craig said.

Cover crops have a cost – buying seed and taking time and fuel to manage – but the Stehlys appreciate the long-term benefits as soil organic matter grows, water infiltration improves and erosion issues dissipate. Also, some programs offer financial assistance to help producers establish cover crops, like the Soil Health Improvement and Planning Project administered by the South Dakota Soil Health Coalition.

At the same time, the brothers are opting not to farm some of their acres that weren’t yielding a profit.

They worked with the Every Acres Counts program to remove from production marginal acres – wetlands or areas impacted by saline issues where crops don’t grow well. They’ve converted 45 different plots on their farm to native grasses. One buffer they established in the early 2000s now supports 48 different forbs, Gene said. The plants serve as an important early food sources for pheasant chicks.

“We end up with more profit and more wildlife, and that’s better for the environment,” Gene said.

Landowners are often surprised to learn that setting aside even just an acre or two can make an impact on pollinators and wildlife, Magedanz said. At that same time, it can bump up yield averages for the field.

“Inherently, it is a benefit to the operation’s bottom line,” he said.

Game, Fish and Parks works with numerous agencies and nonprofits to help landowners find programs to fit their goals. It’s a fantastic partnership, Magedanz said, and important work when more than 80 percent of South Dakota is privately owned.

“The majority of wildlife is raised on private land,” he said. “We’re fortunate to have the landowners that we do, that have the deep connection with their operations and their business, and also with the wildlife.”

To learn more about the connection between soil health and wildlife, visit www.sdsoilhealthcoalition.org.

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