Drought conditions are opening up more land for emergency haying and grazing. USDA has authorized it on Conservation Reserve Program land in more than 1,000 counties.
Last month alone, emergency haying and grazing was authorized in 196 counties with 39 counties added in just one week. Counties can request the emergency status if there’s a 40% or greater loss of forage production and are designated as being in severe drought.
The drought is also causing problems when it comes to watersheds in some parts of South Dakota. A team of researchers and students at South Dakota Mines is tracking the salinity content in 70stock dams across 12 watersheds in two northwestern counties in the state.
Their study shows an alarming trend in increased salinity. In fact, in some cases they report the salt concentrations of the water are high enough to cause adverse health effects for livestock and wildlife, and in a handful of them, they say the salinity is high enough to be lethal.
Sampling was done in Butte and Harding counties. The results show low salt levels from 2018 to 2019, but in times of drought, like this year, many stock dams began drying up and the evaporation causes increased salinity.
Stock dams are used by livestock producers across the West to make sure their animals have access to water. In northwestern South Dakota alone, there are 77,000 stock dams.
