HAZELTON, N.D. – With nearly two feet of snow falling across the region in mid-December, strong winds creating tall snowdrifts, and many road closures, livestock producers have been facing some serious challenges to end the year.

“We got 19 inches of snow yesterday (Thursday, Dec. 15) and we’re dealing with a lot of the same struggles as other producers are in these conditions,” said Jayce Doan, who ranches with his wife, Kassy, at Black Leg Ranch.

Jayce said it has been challenging trying to move around the region – and even around the ranch itself.

“We got stuck quite a few times and I wasn’t able to make it up to the other ranch today,” he said on Dec. 16. He called his dad, Jerry, who headed out to feed the livestock on that side of the ranch. “My dad was up there doing everything by himself, and he got stuck with the payloader.”

Jayce explained Jerry was in the process of driving the payloader down the road to get over to one of the pens, and as he drove, it created a snow pile, which he then got stuck in.

“These payloaders weigh so much and there was ice underneath, so he just couldn't get out. He had to walk back and get a different tractor,” Jayce said, noting that nobody could get to him with the conditions the way there were. “He used the tractor to move the snow and get the payloader to go forward.”

With the harsh weather, the Doans have been spending a lot of time checking on and supplementing the cattle, buffalo, and other animals with hay.

“It has been a big chore and the weather takes its toll on the animals. You can lose some of the weaker ones, and as much as you do for them – putting them in barns, making windbreaks, bedding them down – everything still takes a toll on them,” he said. “It’s been every single day. We have not had a break so far.”

Jayce said he knows there are producers who are in a worse position then they are – especially those who haven’t been able to reach their cattle or who don’t have the structures to get livestock out of the blowing snow and wind.

While he is hopeful they are getting to the end of this long storm, he knows the forecast for the week ahead is for below-zero temperatures.

“While it has been pretty good for temperatures so far, in the 20s, it is going to get bitter,” Jayce said.

That will probably mean more hay because without the snow melting, the livestock can’t graze cover crops or reach the grass in other winter grazing areas.

“We’re sitting all right on hay, but I mean, we’re feeding a lot during these snowy, cold days,” he said.

Jayce had a problem reaching the hay stored in one of the fields to feed the buffalo due to the large snowdrifts blocking access.

“Even for the buffalo here, I have hay, but it’s still sitting out in the field and I can’t get to it. So I brought a semi-load of hay down here to try and get by for a few days before I can get out and get some,” Jayce said. “The snowdrifts have been terrible.”

Jayce and Kassy live a mile and a half off of the main gravel road on the southern ranch, which easily drifts in with snow.

“Fortunately, last night I was able to get home, and this morning I took the tractor up there, cleared all the drifts out and everything. I wouldn't have got out with a vehicle this morning if I hadn’t done that last night,” he said.

Kassy, who sees her doctor regularly with her pregnancy, has had her appointments cancelled twice due to the weather.

Interstate 94 and smaller highways in the region have been closed down due to the heavy drifting.

“We have had to reschedule Kassy’s appointment to check how her pregnancy is coming along because they keep cancelling due to the weather,” he said. “I have been waiting all day (Dec. 16) for the interstate to reopen so I could go to Brookings, S.D., and I expect it to open at some point today,” Jayce said. The interstate was opened by late afternoon.

Kassy, who ran their Black Leg Ranch Meats booth at the Pride of Dakota while Jayce was away, said the weekend went very well.

“Kassy said sales were phenomenal. She was really impressed with everything,” he said. They sold a lot of beef, buffalo meat, and other meat products to people in the region who were stocking up ahead of Christmas.

Jayce said the storms are impacting the flow of meat products because their shipping day is Monday, and Kassy wasn’t able to make it Monday to ship out because of the weather.

“We had to prolong that for an extra week,” he said. “But I am glad it didn’t ship out because it would probably be sitting in a warehouse or on a truck somewhere.”

They are still planning to go to Kassy’s family, who ranch near Havre, Mont., for Christmas.

“We’re going to be gone for 10 days or two weeks over Christmas, so Dad is going to a bigger workload than I would like for him to have,” Jayce concluded.