In 2022, South Dakotan Holsing Farms came off one of the worst drought years in the history of their farm. 

Here’s how the Holt family managed it:

“We have a flowing well on our place which is a great resource for us,” Gene Holt explains. “Even if we had dugouts that were dry, we would just flood that dugout with the well and use it like a big tank.” 

“Sometimes we’ll even set up a portable tank and then just let the water run into it,” Kurt Holt says. “It’s a 2,000-gallon tank. The cows will drink out of it.” 

“We’ll let it run into the dam or dugout too, just to fill it,” Gene adds.

The Holts also use a rural water system (dubbed WEB, for Walworth, Edmunds and Brown, the counties that joined together to plan the water system in the mid-1970s) on the south part of their property, which they say can be hit or miss at times.  

“It’s WEB water and we had issues with it this year with not enough volume or pressure,” Kurt explains. 

“Just real inconsistent and unreliable,” Gene adds. “The WEB is great quality, but it’s a balancing act.” 

To read more about the Holt farm and how they use cover crops in unique ways, see Noah Newman’s article “Cover Cropping for Hunting and Grazing” on Cover Crop Strategies.