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South Dakota rancher braces for more dry weather, fire risk

The drought monitor indicates expansion of drought and increasing severity. Josh Geigle, a cattleman just off I-90 near Wall, South Dakota, tells Brownfield he is thankful for the few snows that have fallen on his place.

“Usually they’re meted off within a week’s time and we’re back in the warmer temperatures,” Geigle told Brownfield Ag News Thursday. “That moisture doesn’t last very long.”

Seventy-eight percent of the state is in drought, and it’s common to be dry near South Dakota’s Badlands, so Geigle has learned to avoid overstocking the land homesteaded by his great-grandfather.

“And that way when we do get a dry year we don’t have to downsize as much as we would if we were overstocked to begin with,” said Geigle.

A volunteer firefighter, Geigle points to three wild fires surrounding his place and keeps a tractor hooked to a disk with a truck-mounted fire unit ready in case those fires get too close. He concludes the interview with a simple request.

“Have everybody ask the good Lord to send rain where it’s needed.”