 In 1914, my grandfather and grandmother homesteaded here, and I am third generation, and we have the fourth generation ranchers on the ranch today. The history of this ranch from a grazing point of view was season long grazed up until 1990 and 1991. In 1990, I went through the bootstraps program and had a range consultant come to the ranch and work with my dad and I, and that's when we started rotational grazing. We were standing on a ridge looking out over the prairie, Dwayne Breyer was the consultant and my dad Ski and I, and Dwayne said, fellas, you're going to need to start rotating these pastures. And my dad looked at him and said, Dwayne, that won't work. And then Dwayne's response was, well then, you better start small. And so in two years, my dad was the biggest fan. We couldn't progress fast enough, we couldn't subdivide pastures fast enough. When he started seeing results, he was all in. So I had tremendous support. We went from 12 pastures to close to 40 now. Every pasture that we have is different, they're different sizes. Some of them have a lot of badlands, some of them have a lot of trees, they have different season of grasses, some are cool season, some are warm season grasses. So every pasture is handled a little bit different than the last one. We have gone through in the past and done inventory on these pastures, what grasses are in there, how much they produce, and determine the amount of time that we're going to be in that pasture based off of that and how much of that grass we want to remove. And that changes year to year based on water a lot because our stock dams are going dry, we don't have water tanks everywhere, we've got a lot of water tanks, but we're working on getting a lot of above ground water line put in this year to scatter water out so that we can more effectively graze corners of the pasture that don't get touched quite as evenly I guess you could say, because they have to travel so far to go back to water. And then along with that we're starting to do more cross fencing. One of the benefits of living in a badland country here are the warm season grasses. We have a high percentage warm season grasses because up on the flats, on the hills we have clay kind of gumbo and down in the valleys, there's these badland overflow sites where the Cytos grama, big blue stem, little blue stem, just flourish. So when we started the rotation, those plants exploded and if they're 40% of the plant community in a lot of pastures, that was a really big improvement in production. In the first 10 years we saw a 30% increase in stocking rate and we've maintained that over the years now. The land has become healthier every year since. So now we're 30 years into this, or 25 really, and we're seeing some really good things with plant diversity, higher plant populations, and higher organic matter in the soil where it rains, water soaks into the ground more now than it used to by a lot. So we are more drought resilient. We've grown grass in every drought since the 90s now, some grass anyway, that part has been a big benefit. Growing food is really important and having the opportunity to grow food well in a way that builds soil and is part of the system rather than separate from it. It's hard to pinpoint exactly a spot in time where I realized the importance of soil and all of the moving pieces on a ranch as far as wildlife and plant diversity. It's just been such a big part of living here that I don't think there is one exact point in time where I realize how important it is. I think definitely as I get older I appreciate it more. I'm able to really see the difference it makes when you pay attention to the soil and all the life happening below the surface and how deeply that impacts everything above the surface from our daily life for just having peace of mind that we're doing the right thing for the landscape and for the animals and the wildlife. Right now we're starting the process of transitioning the fourth generation into the ranch. One of my main goals is to be able to sustain the ranch and keep it healthy enough that I can do that for my son in the future so he can be the fifth generation on the ranch and whoever else might be coming up at the time. Family is important and Donna and I are blessed that way. We have four kids, Blake and Amy have two and we have kids that want to come back and ranch and also just come here for fun. That's a valuable thing. That's worth a lot. These change the way this is managed so it accommodates not just the grass and the cattle but the people that live here so you get more efficient. So you're using the cattle to process the grass, not all the equipment. But in real practical terms it means you can raise a family and still have time for your family. I think every year that goes by and every grandchild that is born I tend to value the land and family even more. This place is an amazing, amazing place and it becomes part of us and we see the joy in our children about the place and the family and our grandkids as well. It's a wonderful feeling to see that love continue. It's deep inside us that this place has value, has family value, has history. It's a place that we have to take care of and to see that next generation with that same passion and effort and energy, that's just beyond words.