By Lura Roti

Pulling back a thick layer of crop residue with his bare hands, Mike Beer digs into the earth and holds up a black clump of soil alive with earthworms.

"This is heavy clay, and when I first started farming it was hard as a rock,” Mike says. “Now, look at it — it's like a vegetable garden.”

The Keldron, S.D., rancher says he’s always been curious about the soil. As a teenager, he would go out onto the range and dig deep holes.

"Everyone has something and for me, it is soil,” Mike says. “I remember seeing the different horizons and understanding that they were different soil types long before I ever read that in a textbook."

What began as a childhood hobby became a useful talent in college when he judged on South Dakota State University's nationally ranked soil judging team.

His interest in enhancing soil health led him to work in the university's soil lab and complete a 1991 senior research project on no-till farming practices. At the time, no-till was a foreign concept in northwest South Dakota.

TEEMING WITH LIFE: Mike Beer holds up a black clump of soil alive with earthworms — evidence, he says, that the soil management practices he has been implementing for nearly three decades are paying off.

Today, the soil management practices Mike has used for nearly three decades are vital to his family's livelihood. Mike and his wife, Danni, raise cattle and a wide range of crops, such as registered spring wheat, winter wheat, corn, sunflowers, millet, soybeans, chickpeas, hay and cover crops. They farm with one of their sons, Bo, who is 23.

The Beers were among the first in northwestern South Dakota to implement no-till farming practices. No-till is now the norm because of its ability to capture and retain soil moisture.

“Moisture is our limiting factor," Danni says. "When we started farming here, everything was strip farmed — one year wheat and one year fallow."

Dust storms were just part of life. Today, thanks to no-till, wind erosion is no longer much of an issue. Instead or using tillage to control weeds and disease, the Beers rely on the diversity of their crop rotations. For two years they will plant cool-season grasses such as spring wheat and winter wheat. Then they will follow that with two years of something else — a cool-season broadleaf, such as field peas, and then a warm-season broadleaf (sunflowers) or warm-season grass (corn or millet).

"We spray a lot less today than we did 25 years ago," Danni says.

Working toward a goal
Although Mike did not grow up on a farm or ranch, his family homesteaded in Ziebach County, S.D. As a teen, he worked for Jack and Barb Wanstedt on their farm. Their grown children were not interested in returning home to run the farm so they reached out to Mike.

"They told me that after I went to college, if I wanted to take over their place they would help me get started," Mike says. "It was always my dream to farm."

Like Mike, Danni was passionate about farming and ranching. She grew up on a third generation registered Angus ranch near Morristown.

Friends since middle school, Mike and Danni began dating in high school. They attended SDSU. Mike graduated with an agronomy degree and Danni with a degree in agriculture education.

FAMILY BUSINESS: Bo Beer, 23, is farming with his parents and has started his own cattle herd.

Following graduation, the newlyweds set about building an operation that would sustain their growing family. “We have always been goal setters,” Danni says. “It was our goal to have a full-time operation where we could both work together day-in and day-out.”

They now have four children; Bobbi Froelich, 24; Bo, 23; Bailie, 20; and Blaze, 7. Bo farms with them and is starting his own cattle herd.

The family is active in the South Dakota Farmers Union.

New things to increase yields
The Beers are always trying new practices to increase crop and forage yields. A few years ago, they started seeding in cover crops for additional fall forage as they harvested their small grains mid-summer.

“One of us will run the combine while the other runs the drill,” Mike says. “This technique captures the remaining soil moisture. In this country, you won't get seed to germinate if you wait because we may not get another rain.”

During a drought, the years of no-till and other soil-building practices especially pay off. In 2017, the Beers were able to harvest most of their cropland for grain.

Roti is a writer for S.D. Farmers Union