PIERRE — The U-S Department of Agriculture has declared 12 South Dakota counties as primary natural disaster areas due to the ongoing drought. The South Dakota Department of Ag and Natural Resources posted the counties on their Facebook page Thursday. The 12 counties include Dewey, Potter and Ziebach Counties along with Butte, Campbell, Corson, Edmunds, Harding, McPherson, Meade, Perkins and Walworth. Eight additional counties have been declared as contiguous disaster counties. They include Stanley, Sully, Hyde, Haakon, Brown, Faulk, Lawrence and Pennington. Producers in those counties should contact their local Farm Service Agency office for more information on the declaration. Dewey, Potter and Ziebach counties are under D-3 Extreme drought while severe drought is noted in southern Ziebach and Dewey, most of Potter and Sully and northern Stanley and Haakon Counties.
