PIERRE, S.D. (AP)--Ranchers who have endured western South Dakota's prolonged drought are worried. They may have to sell their cattle unless substantial spring rains start to resurrect the grass their herds need.

"It's kind of a critical situation for everybody here," said Bob Johnson, whose ranch is near Buffalo in Harding County. "Everybody is betting on the rain."

Western South Dakota ranches usually carry over enough grass to get their cattle through the spring, but there is no carry-over grass this year. That means rain is needed soon to help the range begin recovering.

"If it stays dry, there is going to be a lot of cattle sold. There isn't any other way to go," Johnson said.

Buying hay is expensive, and the drought is so widespread that there are no pastures to rent within a reasonable distance, Johnson said. That means his family and others will have to sell part of their cow herds if spring rains don't come.

Western South Dakota has been dry for a half dozen years, but the amount of rainfall varies. Some areas get good rains one year and then slip back into drought.

Charles Kruse, who ranches near Interior south of Badlands National Park, said the drought and a skyrocketing prairie dog population on the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands have stripped grass and other plants from much of the area.

When the wind kicks up, the dust blows 300 feet or more into the air and makes it hard to see the trees near Kruse's house. Dirt drifts into streams and road ditches.

"When it blows, it looks like the 30s," Kruse said, echoing comments of other ranchers who said this drought reminds them of the Dust Bowl that devastated the Great Plains seven decades ago.

"I'm at the point that if rain doesn't happen before the end of April, I'm going to have to sell probably a major part of my herd," said Kruse, who already sold some of his cows last year.

The U.S. Drought Monitor, prepared by federal agencies, shows the middle part of the state around the Missouri River to be abnormally dry. Farther west, the drought intensities change to moderate and then to severe. The Black Hills and other counties at the western edge of South Dakota are in extreme drought.

Moving from east to west, those drought ratings mean increasing damage to crops and pastures and greater water shortages.

Some areas got good rains last year, but others fell far short of normal. Buffalo, for example, got 10.1 inches of rain in 2004, nearly 3.9 inches below average. Oelrichs, in southwestern South Dakota, got about 12.5 inches of rain for the year, nearly 4.5 inches below normal.

Ranchers will need to worry not only about growing grass but also about having enough good quality water to support their cattle, state Agriculture Secretary Larry Gabriel said. Without good rains, Gabriel will have to pump water for the cattle on his ranch near Cottonwood.

"I'm getting very concerned about it," he said of the continuing drought. "It's going to get very serious."

State Climatologist Dennis Todey said that while eastern South Dakota had average or above average rain last year, most of western South Dakota is short of grass and water because rainfall was below average.

Ranchers without access to wells or rural water system pipelines probably will have to sell cattle this year unless it rains, Todey said.

Even if rainfall returns to normal, it will take a year or more for stock dams to be replenished and for grass to recover, especially in pastures that have been heavily grazed, he said.

There is no indication yet whether the summer will be dry or wet, but predictions indicate summer temperatures may be cooler than average, Todey said. That would put less stress on livestock and reduce evaporation, he said.

Martin Beutler, director of the Cooperative Extension Service's West River Ag Center in Rapid City, said ranchers must figure out what they will do if it stays dry.

Options would include how long to keep cattle in each pasture, whether to sell part of their herds and how to get water for the animals, Beutler said. Ranchers also must be careful to limit the damage to their grass, which could take several years to recover after the drought ends, he said.

"The grass is the key resource that keeps these ranch operations going," Beutler said.

Ranchers can work their way through the drought, he said.

"I mean, droughts have come and gone all the time in this country. It's not the end of the world," Beutler said. "Those who do a good job of planning and what not and adapting to conditions will survive it and come out all right."

From his ranch near Interior, Kruse is worried but determined to survive.

"It's going to be tough, there's no doubt about it," Kruse said. "But these cycles have happened before and my parents, my grandparents made it through the 30s. I imagine we'll get through it, too."

Date: 3/23/05