South Dakota Drought Tool

The South Dakota Drought Tool (SDDT) is one of best science tools available for South Dakota grassland land managers.

Photo Credit

Forest Service photo by Erika Reiter

Livestock near Buffalo Gap National Grassland in western South Dakota.

With South Dakota's extensive grasslands, managers and producers rely on drought prediction tools that can forecast drought and be frequently updated during the growing season. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) developed the South Dakota Drought Tool to provide peak and monthly forage production estimates for the entire state.

In a new General Technical Report, Forest Service researchers updated the South Dakota Drought Tool model to predict percent of average peak forage production using measured forage produced from data sourced from the National Resource Inventory and evaluated the model's performance when predicting forage production.

Many agencies and managers already use the South Dakota Drought Tool. South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks, Division of Wildlife uses the tool to refine the number of elk contingency tags in various portions of the Black Hills when forage production predictions are lower than average. South Dakota livestock producers use the South Dakota Drought Tool to plan ahead for future conditions by culling or altering livestock purchases in the late fall and winter. The Forest Service uses the South Dakota Drought Tool as one of the tools to make decisions on altering permittee grazing in years of drought.

Other drought tools only provide predictions for large areas (around 2500 acres or individual counties) and also struggle with relatively high error rates. The South Dakota Drought Tool enables managers to enter local precipitation for their area and assess how this will affect forage availability for themselves.