Drought in Dakotas Worsens, Selling Cattle in Mile-Long Lines.
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Dennis Daugaard (R-SD) has declared a statewide emergency because of the ongoing drought conditions in his state.
As part of the state of emergency, South Dakota will ease haying and transportation restrictions to assist ag producers.
Meanwhile in North Dakota, Doug Goehring, state agriculture commissioner, got a first-hand look at the drought conditions.
He says it is “heartbreaking” to see livestock producers lined up for almost a mile at auction markets.
There have been calls to open Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres to early haying and grazing.

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.

Governor declares drought emergency.
Drought conditions in South Dakota have prompted Gov.
Dennis Daugaard to issue an emergency declaration which eases hay and transportation restrictions.
The South Dakota Department of Transportation has suspended mowing operations along those ditches until July 5 in order to give farmers access.
The declaration isn’t likely to affect the state’s pheasant population, said Travis Runia senior upland game biologist for the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department.
The mowing restriction was created as an effort to give pheasants more places to nest.
Runia said pheasants do indeed nest in highway ditches.
Still, compliance with the restrictions hasn’t been all that great and state highway ditches don’t amount to all that many acres of land, Runia said, so the impact of mowing the ditches likely won’t be too big when it comes to pheasants.
The drought conditions affecting ranchers are much more likely to cause a problem.
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor map shows about 80 percent of the state being either abnormally dry or in some stage of drought, up just slightly from last week.

Gov.
Daugaard issues state Of emergency for drought conditions.
PIERRE – Gov.
Dennis Daugaard has declared a statewide emergency because of the ongoing drought conditions in South Dakota.
As part of the State of Emergency, the state will ease haying and transportation restrictions to assist agriculture producers.
Effective immediately, farmers and ranchers may cut and bale state highway ditches adjacent to their property across the entire state.
For safety reasons, mowing in the medians of divided four-lane highways is prohibited and a permit is still required for mowing interstate right-of-ways.
Producers are also reminded to be watchful of traffic along the highways and to always yield to oncoming traffic.
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.

Drought conditions move into Lyman County.
Drought conditions move into Lyman County Governor activates State drought Task Force PIERRE, S.D.
Dennis Daugaard activated the state Drought Task Force Thurs., June 8 to monitor drought conditions across South Dakota.
“The recent hot, dry weather has increased drought conditions quickly in parts of South Dakota,” says Gov.
Much of central South Dakota, as well as portions of northeast South Dakota have only seen 25 percent to 50 percent of normal precipitation in the past 90 days.
After low to sometimes moderate fire danger during spring green-up, days of high fire danger are likely during dry and windy periods.
Lyman County Commission passed a burn ordinance in 2016 that prohibits any burning based when the National Weather Service declares a very high or extreme grassland fire danger or issues a red flag warning for strong winds.
Cattle may have to graze on spring wheat.
This is happening in mainly central and northern areas as well, where D2 drought conditions exist.
Cattle are now feeding on dry lots in many areas, instead of out on pastures, due to short grass.

SD farmers worry about crops as drought conditions continue.
(NBC News) – Dry conditions in South Dakota have prompted Governor Dennis Daugaard to activate the State Drought Task Force and farmers across the state can’t get a break from the sunshine.
It started out good for lifelong Miller farmer JD Wangsness.
This year had the makings of a good one with calving and getting crops in the ground.
The lack of moisture, the duration of time it has been since we’ve had moisture."
Wangsness said, "If it starts to rain, I don’t think we would come up with as good of crop as we normally would.
But until we get some rain, it’s just sitting there not doing a lot."
Plus, you lose your factories so it’s not the best thing to be doing."
Going forward, the only thing farmers like Wangsness can do, is hope for a little help from mother nature.
Just plan for the worst and hope for the best."