While the moisture from the spring snow storm is a blessing for dry areas, it’s also a curse for calving season. Williston, North Dakota farmer Ryan Ellis said it’s sometimes necessary to lose a few calves to save the herd. “That’s the situation we’re in this year. I guess we’d preferred this moisture to come in as rain, but at this point, we’ll take whatever moisture we can get. Without it, the pastures weren’t going to be good.” Near Houghton, South Dakota, Troy Knecht is also dealing with wet weather. “If you have wet and warm at calving season, you can manage that. If you have cold and dry, you can manage that, but wet and cold together is a bad combination,” said Knecht. “We’ve had good luck so far, but had to treat some under-the-weather calves.”
