• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- A state board on Friday approved a 10-cents-a-head increase in the fee for livestock inspections designed to prevent the theft of cattle, horses and mules in western South Dakota.
• The Brand Board voted 4-1 to raise the inspection fee from 90 cents a head to $1, a move board members said will keep the brand inspection program in the black for a few more years. If a legislative review committee endorses the plan, the higher fee is expected to take effect July 1.
• Larry Stearns, the board's executive director, said the fee increase is needed to cover the rising costs of the inspections required when cattle, horses or mules are sold, slaughtered or moved out of the inspection area west of the Missouri River. Farmers and ranchers have been reducing their herds because of the lingering drought, which means there will be fewer cattle sold and inspected in the future, he said.
• The program has been inspecting the brands of about 1.5 million head of livestock a year, but that could drop to 1.2 million head this year, Stearns said. Most of the inspections are at local sale barns, but some are conducted at ranches for private sales or when livestock is shipped elsewhere.
• "Even with precipitation, it's going to take at least a year or maybe two before this country is able to carry the amount of livestock that it had before this drought situation," Stearns said.
• The board a year ago increased the fee from 80 cents to 90 cents with the expectation an extra fee could be charged to those who have small numbers of cattle inspected at their farms or ranches. After the Legislature rejected that extra fee, the board decided to seek the overall fee increase for all inspections.
• The South Dakota Cattlemen's Association supported the fee increase, but the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association opposed it.

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