Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part series on Shawn and Kristy Freeland’s Dry Creek Farm & Ranch and their management focused on soil health.

For first-generation rancher Shawn Freeland of Caputa, S.D., building soil health is one of his top priorities. But it didn’t begin that way. From starting with 10 cows and using traditional feedlot management to now taking care of the land, Freeland has had a journey on his ranch.

Freeland and his wife, Kristy, work to heal the soil while producing quality animals at their Dry Creek Farm & Ranch.

“To build the soil back, you have to think back 250 years, and the real diversity that was here,” Freeland says. “Buffalo and elk and deer and grizzly bears and wolves and antelope — all of those animals together complementing one another.”

To emulate that diversity, the Freelands’ ranch is home to cattle, sheep, horses, pigs and bees.

Learn more about the Freelands and their unique soil health journey by clicking through the slideshow.