Dan Anderson has a deep-rooted love for prairies and rangeland. It was instilled in him by his father, Jim, who served 48 years on his county’s soil conservation board, and his mother Nora’s passion to teach about soil and range care. As a young 4-H member, Dan enjoyed plant identification activities, and he took special interest in grass growing strategies years later while studying ranch management.

As newlyweds in the 1980s, Dan and Sharon Anderson worked on ranches across South Dakota where they saw the positive effects of rotational grazing practices. After returning home to help his parents run their ranch nestled on Darling Creek, they put their experience to work. 

The past practice of allowing cattle and sheep to graze areas multiple times each season without adequate recovery periods had allowed undesirable grasses to spread and bare spots to form. They cross-fenced the ranch’s six large pastures into 19 smaller paddocks to be grazed for short durations with long recovery times. 

Native grasses started coming back, with diversity in both plant species and wildlife confirmed they were on the right path. The Andersons were intrigued with the ability of deep-rooted native grasses to capture moisture.  

“The deeper the root goes, that’s a channel for water to get to that depth,” Dan explains. “It also opens the soil up and helps a migration of nutrients upward and downward. Moisture follows that root.”

As their grasslands grew more resilient thanks to adaptive grazing management, it allowed the Andersons to harvest less hay on the ranch they purchased from his parents in 1990. Their winter feed needs have dropped 60 percent, from 800 to 300 tons of hay. A longer grazing season and less hay needs have resulted in significant labor, time, and cost savings while improving overall rangeland health. 

Big bluestem grass, which once only grew in areas with the most productive soils and excess moisture, now grows on hillsides and hilltops. Likewise, natural springs have resurfaced, and grass looks better even amid drought conditions.

In a region subject to major extremes from drought to heavy rainfall, fire, blizzards, and wild temperature swings, resilience is key to surviving and thriving. 

Although the Andersons’ drought action plan calls for selling livestock, conservation gains have allowed them to raise more cattle and sheep over time. 

“In wet years, we’re right at double the stocking rate of the historic carrying capacity of the ranch,” Dan said. “Last winter, I figured that over a 10-year period we averaged a 70 percent higher stocking rate. This has allowed our daughter Danessa to come back to be with us without buying another ranch.”

“We’ve been trying to do that for generations,” Sharon added. “There’s always enough work on the ranch but not enough income.”

Dan and Sharon’s four grown daughters (Danci, Danika, Dantae, and Danessa) who grew up showing the ranch’s Gelbvieh cattle and Rambouillet sheep as 4-H members, now actively manage Darling Creek Ranch in different capacities. Together, they began an internship program at the ranch in 2016 to teach management of a multi-species grazing operation.

The Anderson daughters credit their parents with teaching them the importance of observing, not being afraid to fail and learning from their mistakes. Along with their families, the next generations are invested and rooted in their parents’ deep love for western South Dakota’s rangeland, livestock, wildlife, and ranch culture. 

A seed planted long ago continues to thrive.