 We are Jeff and Marcy Dell. We ranch and farm north of Nislin, South Dakota. We run a Angus cattle operation and we also raise boar goats. We are a feed-based operation and lease out the majority of our pasture for the cattle. The goats stay around the home place and we utilize those for smaller areas, weed control, creek banks, and such areas as that that we would not utilize for the cattle. The irrigation land that we have, we spend quite a bit of money and time spraying our fields and getting rid of noxious weeds or the labor that goes with it. This whole system is based off of large open canals and so you get whatever weeds, whatever seeds, whatever comes out of the air off the ground comes down those canals. About a year and a half ago, we started doing some research on what can we do and how can we help ourselves to get rid of the weeds and problems that we have. We started doing research for four meat goats. We purchased a small herd of them here about a year ago and we're finding they prefer the weeds. We're assuming and estimating that around 60 to 65 percent of their diet is preferred to be weeds and then moving on to the grasses. If we let them out into a bigger area, they will essentially eat all of the weeds before they even start touching the grass. They seem to choose the grasses that our cows don't want so it's a diversity win between the cattle and the goats. Not only are we cutting out an input cost on weed control by having to buy chemical and spray and fuel and time to go out and spray weeds, we're cutting that input cost out as much as possible. We're using those weeds to feed the goats essentially, so we're turning it into a profit instead of an expense and hopefully doing a better job by not putting as much chemical on the land. Cattle will go out and they will pick and choose the grasses before they would touch a weed. The goats will essentially consume the majority of plants that the cattle won't touch. Canadian thistle in our area is not a huge problem, but it's an issue and those goats as long as you can keep ahead of the thistle and it doesn't get too ranked, they will eat that thistle plant down to the ground. They really like creeping Jenny. They will totally pick out an area that has creeping Jenny in it and eat all the leaves and the vine part of the plant as well. We would like to try to start grazing the cattle through on rotational grazing system with them, but then follow with the goats. On top of getting rid of the weeds, we feel that now you're going to have the cattle going through and they're grazing the land and they're getting a heavier hoof impact on the land and they're defecating and urinating on the land and then the goats are coming through with a different form of fertilizer because they're going to be defecating and urinating on the land. They're going to be eating a different type of plant on the land and they have a different form of hoof impact as well on the land. Part of the reason that we moved it toward getting the goats and creating more diversity with the livestock that we're going to be at home was the fact of our children. We're trying hard to maintain and sustain at our place as most people that are in the industry are trying to do. We thought adding the goats is a financial benefit to us as well in both it's another crop to sell twice a year. It is a benefit on the grass. We're growing more native grass. The goats are consuming what our cows aren't wanting to plus we don't have the time and money into spraying fields and working fields and all of that kind of stuff. Jeff and Marcy have recently gotten into bale grazing on both the crop land and to address specific concerns on pieces of rangeland that maybe have low productivity or have limiting soils. For instance a clay pan that is very slow water infiltration, low fertility and and it's truly just a bare spot even in a gear like this. With bale grazing that strategic placement of bales in a situation like that on rangeland I'll speak about you know they cut the string or the or the net wrap off of the bale and and then offer limited access for livestock just for a certain number of days or weeks so that in the wintertime when there isn't growing forage to meet the full dietary need of the livestock they can consume those bales that were harvested right now and in the good time of the year when protein and energy levels are high and and can meet most if not all of the nutritional requirements. So on those areas where we roll out the hay or do the bale grazing we're trying to get more organic matter on the ground. Also the cattle while they're eating that they're defecating and urinating on part of the hay but also the soil around it too. We've started to see repairs in those areas that we have been been doing that either bale grazing or rolling hay out and concentrating on those areas where the ground is more bare where there's less production in the soil and we've started to see an increase in grasses coming back vegetation coming back in those areas. The decisions and and challenges that we face today are not going to be the same for the future so we're trying to look at for our kids' sake if they should want to stay here or for whoever decides to to come back in Farman Ranch how are we preserving the land how are we helping keep what was native what was here. We want a ranch as a family not just have a family ranch if we can make this land and this soil better than when we got it and even hope that our kids can even make it better than we did so there's something that's that's totally sustainable for generations to come and we've improved the land and improved the soil that would be the ultimate goal.