PIERRE, S.D.
Dennis Daugaard declared a statewide emergency because of the ongoing drought conditions in the state.
As part of the State of Emergency, the state will ease haying and transportation restrictions to assist agriculture producers.
Effective immediately, farmers and ranchers across the state may cut and bale state highway ditches adjacent to their property.
The South Dakota Department of Transportation has suspended their mowing operations until July 5 to allow farmers to access more of the hay along the ditches.
The state is also authorizing producers to travel statewide without a commercial driver’s license to ease transport of feed in the drought stricken area.
With the emergency drought disaster declaration federal trucking regulations are waived for the transportation of goods such as hay.
FMCSA regulations ranging from 390-399 are waived for the next 30 days.
The permits are free and available by contacting the South Dakota Highway Patrol Permitting Office at (605) 698-3925.
For more information on state highway ditch mowing, call Greg Fuller, SDDOT director of operations at (605) 773-3256.