South Dakota cattle producers gathered in Pierre earlier this week for their annual meeting and convention.  Eric Jennings is the president of the South Dakota Cattlemen’s Association.  He says cattle producers face many challenges for the year ahead, mainly in terms of the expanding and continuing drought.

Jennings says he did not hear anyone speaking about additional liquidating of their cow herds.  He says western regions of the state, a year ago, nearly 20 percent of the cows had been sold due to the dry conditions.  Jennings, who hails from Spearfish, says the state’s cattle producers are opposed to the proposed eminent domain by the carbon pipeline companies wanting to sequester carbon dioxide from regional ethanol plants and transfer it to underground storage in North Dakota.

Jennings says another policy discussion focused on crop insurance for grasslands and other forages.