27 Exploring the Future of Ag with Dr. Dwayne Beck

To most farmers in South Dakota, Dr. Dwayne Beck needs very little introduction, Dwayne is the manager of the Dakota lakes Research Station near Pierre, SD and has been an influential force in promoting no-till farming and an awareness of soil biology with farmers. While Dwayne has written a good bit on no-till farming, he is in his element at Dakota Lakes with farmers, doing things like turning on the pivot irrigation system, putting 2” of water on the n-till ground and immediately following the pivot with producers so they see that on this land, infiltration happens so fast that they can keep their shoes clean!  We got together with Dwayne in the fall of 2021 to talk about Dakota lakes and specifically his interest in integrating livestock into cropping systems.  This has been a dream of his for some time, but it was made a reality through a gift of the Howard Buffet foundation.  Dr. Dwayne Beck is a natural storyteller and in this podcast, we get a 30,000 ft view of how Dakota Lakes is working on re-integrating livestock into cropping systems and why these things are important – Dwayne is open about failure and successes “it says research on the gate” is one of his expressions and he shares both with equal candor.  Most of Dwayne’s principles are illustrated with a story of some sort or another and we end the discussion with why we often need a “brain transplant” or an attitude shift to “see” or benefit from out of the box thinking. Rather than rehash Dr. Beck’s Pedigree, we are providing some links to those of our listeners who don’t know him as well: No-till on the plains – Dwane Beck Bio - http://www.notill.org/dwayne-beck SD Hall of fame – the legacy of Dwayne Beck - https://sdexcellence.org/Dwayne_Beck_2007 Dakota Lakes Research Farm - http://www.dakotalakes.com/ Dakota Lakes Virtual Field Day - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc66Z_FEyOM&list=PLTZDoxH1GkisubbRzKxg2XA_PIzzPE8PM&index=1 “Reversing Soil Degradation with Dwayne Beck” on the Regenerative Agriculture Podcast: http://regenerativeagriculturepodcast.com/2020/11 Check out free resources at the NRCS: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/site/sd/home/