Central South Dakota lived up to its reputation as a leading agricultural center Thursday, March 2 when a group of eight men and women from Kazakhstan (a former USSR country bordered by Russia and China) as well as representatives of the agricultural industry from the United States visited the Tim and Karla Pazour family farm.
The group was in the middle of a two-week tour of feedlot operations in the United States with the intention of taking points from the USA and implementing them in Kazakhstan.
John George, an engineer with Agricultural Engineering Associates in Kansas, said the Kazakhstani government has invested money into developing their current beef and poultry industries.
“Their goal is to get a half million tons of beef to export annually and one million tons for poultry,” said George.
Tim Pazour spent the morning showing the group how his feedlot worked on a daily basis.
Potential Exists for River Flooding Too Soon to Predict Says Corps
OMAHA – Heavy snow and ice over much of the upper Missouri River basin and below normal snow in the mountains will probably result in heavy runoff in March and April and much less in May and June.
The heavy snowpack on the plains is creating high potential for flooding on many of the rivers in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and western Iowa. In addition, because of the large buildup of ice on the rivers, ice jams may add to the potential flooding issues.
“It’s still too early to make reliable forecasts on potential flooding because so much depends on how much more snow accumulates, how fast it melts, and how much rain adds to the runoff,” said Jody Farhat, chief of the Water Management Office. “Total storage in the reservoir system is less than our target for this time of year, which means we have plenty of room to collect runoff and hold water in the reservoirs when downstream river levels are high.”
The mountain snowpack is only 71 percent of normal for this time of the year.
Traditionally, 79 percent of the peak accumulation occurs by March 1. Runoff for 2010 is currently forecast to total 117 percent of normal.