Dawn Butzer grew up around farming and cattle, and the passion that she gained as a little girl has followed her into adulthood. Now, Dawn and her husband Matt own 100 acres in Alcester, South Dakota. While they rented out this property to others for the first five years after purchasing it in 2019, in 2024, Dawn wanted to begin the long process of restoring the soil back into its native grassland.

“I knew that this was going to be a daunting task because it’s not every day that someone’s putting tillable ground back to pasture,” Dawn said.

Aware of the tedious process ahead of her, Dawn attended a South Dakota Grassland Coalition Grazing School to learn the best practices to make her dreams a reality. Although this was only the first step towards transitioning this land, Dawn began putting a plan in place.

After finishing the grazing school, Dawn enlisted the help of Kory Kezar, district conservationist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), for the long planning process. Kory emphasized the importance of long-term planning, continued soil improvements, and flexibility in grazing systems.

The next step for restoring the Butzers' land was to contact Jay Hermann, a rangeland specialist with NRCS, who assisted in designing a seed mix with the NRCS, South Dakota State University Extension, and South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks.

The hope is that the designed seed mix will help increase soil health and, in turn, increase the benefits that the deep root systems of the native grasses bring to the land and eventually to the cattle.

“I reached out to NRCS because I knew that the government put that agency in place to help people like me. They are built for providing information,” Dawn said. “Working with NRCS really brought me a lot of comfort because they brought the education to the table. I just implemented it.”

Dawn carefully worked through these planning phases and began the final preparations for the land before seeds could be planted. These preparations included more help from Kory for technical assistance on water systems, erosion control, and proper fencing options for grazing infrastructure.

NRCS helped put the plan into action, and, in early 2025, Dawn’s 100 acres were prepped and ready for restoration back to native grassland. The land now has three automatic waterers using ground-source heat, cross-fencing, and low-water crossings designed by NRCS.

Although it was a long process, they were able to officially begin planting the seed mix on Good Friday of 2025. Now that the land has officially begun its physical restoration process, the Butzers have many hopes for their land’s longevity and strength in the coming years.

They hope to pass this restored land down to their children for the next generation of South Dakota’s cow-calf operators. In addition to her family, Dawn hopes this project will have an impact on the community, both for the people and wildlife. This 70% warm-season grass, 30% cool-season, and native forage acreage is expected to help conservation efforts continue forward on their operation. After the land sits for a year, it is set to have increased soil health (reducing possible erosion and creating higher drought resilience), increased local biodiversity and ecosystems, and better economic stability by supporting long-term cattle production while protecting natural resources.

“I feel almost like the ground is saying thank you,” Dawn said.

After the ground and grass have had a year to stabilize and grow, Dawn will be able to move her cattle onto this parcel of land to graze. The ground, cattle, wildlife and future generations will all flourish from this restoration.