This segment posted above is from SDPB's daily public-affairs show, In the Moment, hosted by Lori Walsh.
Since 1888 Marshall County has been home to the Bien family ranch. Located in the rolling hills of South Dakota’s Prairie Coteau, since the family homesteaded the land, they have embraced its natural landscape of native grass and wetlands.
Even though cattle have called the Bien Ranch home for more than 130 years, third-generation rancher, Neil Bien is the first to tell you that his primary focus is not cattle.
“Grassland to us is everything. It’s everything. It’s our livelihood, it’s the feed source for our livestock. Without the grass there would be no reason for us to be ranchers or care about taking care of it,” says Neil.
Neil is not the first in his family to think this way. For the most part, the family has left the native prairie since his grandfather Ole staked his homestead claim on this Prairie Coteau land in 1888.
“I give my ancestors a lot of credit. We are proud of our ancestry and our roots, but we are also grateful for the land our roots are embedded in yet today,” says Neil.
Through the years, the family has relied on cattle to help maintain grassland health.
“If you are going to have soil protected and recycle the nutrients, there is only one way I know, and that is through livestock, and mainly cattle. Cattle are unique, they don’t have any teeth on top front like we do. If they eat this grass, they literally tear this grass. Unbelievable to most people, that stimulates the grass to grow more and have more photosynthesis take place and that is what keeps the cycle of photosynthesis and respiration happening,” says Neil.
With more than 200 native plant species thriving on the Bien Ranch cattle are quite content grazing the native prairie.
Imitating migrating buffalo herds of the past the family rotates the cattle herd through multiple pastures each year. The Biens are intentional about the rotation. They change up the time of year each pasture is grazed and choose not to graze some pastures.
“Grass is like people to some extent. It needs a rest and time to reinvigorate,” Neil says.
Native grasslands are not the only natural feature the family decided not to disturb. They also left their wetlands alone. Tom Wickstrom is a biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service. He explains wetlands are important for providing additional livestock forage as well as many other reasons.
“Wetlands have several functions, of course wildlife which I am interested in. But they also reduce downstream flooding, because they store water, recharge the aquafer, also trap nutrients instead of running off down the river or into the lake and you get a big algae bloom, they stay up here where the water belongs,” Tom Wickstrom says.
Nate Bien said Tom Wickstrom is not joking when he talks about wetlands attracting wildlife.
“Lots of wildlife. That’s probably one of the things that my grandpa and I are most proud of. Almost equivalent with the cow herd. Having the deer and the birds and the ducks, geese, everything we have. We have turkeys, we have some of the most turkeys around the area. I can sit on the porch of my house in the morning and drink coffee and watch three or four does walk around and eat grass. That is also part of the decisions and management of how we manage this place,” says Nate.
Nate Bien is Niel’s grandson. After graduating from South Dakota State University last spring, he returned to the family ranch and plans to carry on his grandpa’s conservation legacy.
Leaving resources like grasslands and wetlands be - just like Mother Nature intended is not typical, explains Pete Bauman (pronounced bowman, like taking a bow) SDSU Extension Natural Resources Field Specialist.
“What is unique about Neil, the ranch and the family, is in a lot of conservation stories, we tell stories about how something went wrong, or a choice was made and a generation or two or span of time where that mistake is fixed, and that tends to be spun as conservation. For instance, wetland drainage is a good example, lot of conservation stories center around replacing wetlands, replacing prairie lost, restoring grasslands, there is not a big piece of that story here on the ranch because never made those decisions, to begin with. They conserved they practice the slow and patient art of learning with nature,” Pete Bauman says.
In 2022, the Bien family was recognized for their conservation efforts with the Leopold Conservation Award.
