News

By Emily Case-Buskirk, NDMC Communications Specialist

Take a drive across South Dakota or any other place in the Great Plains, and you’ll likely see small ponds dotting the landscape.  

These livestock ponds—also known as stock dams, dugouts, farm ponds or reservoirs—have been an essential feature of the region since before the Dust Bowl era. They are primarily human-made and exist in many pastures from Texas to Canada as a way of keeping herds watered.  

Cody Knutson, National Drought Mitigation Center planning coordinator, is very familiar with these ponds as a South Dakota native and former ranch kid.  

“There’s so many of them built that they’re part of our ecosystem and social landscape,” he said. “I learned how to swim in a stock dam, and we had ice skating parties on them in the winter. Many of them had one type of fish, so we’d go from one dam or dugout to another fishing for bass, perch, bluegills, northern pike, and bullheads.” 

But anecdotal reports of ponds going dry during recent drought, even some of that hadn’t been dry before in recent memory, and associated cattle deaths in the Northern Plains prompted new questions about their health and viability. Why are ponds going dry? How many of them are there? How do we help ensure they’re safe to use?  

These are just a few of the many questions a new group hosted by the NDMC is trying to address.  

A quick stock pond history 

Prior to the 1930s, ponds that had been built were often small, shallow, and muddy. They were prone to going dry or washing out, which was made abundantly clear during the early days of the Dust Bowl era.  

In response, the Soil Conservation Service, predecessor of the Natural Resources Conservation Service, started in 1933. It focused on supporting farm practices, such as providing funding for the planning and construction of stock ponds. On average, these ponds are expected to last 40-60 years with a transitional decline in their usefulness over their lifespan, so maintenance and new pond building is a continual task. 

The ponds reached peak popularity around the 1970s. Hereafter, the ponds started to be displaced by more cost-effective and reliable wells and pipelines. During the 20th century, it has been estimated that about 2.5 million ponds were built across the country with federal funding alone, maybe 8 to 9 million including those privately built. Many of these ponds are still out there in various states of condition—used for livestock, irrigation, soil conservation, wildlife, firefighting and recreational purposes. 

Growing the group 

The NDMC hosts the Great Plains Stock Ponds Working Group in collaboration with the USDA Northern Plains and Southern Plains Climate Hubs, with support from the USDA Office of the Chief Economist. 

The working group is an informal network of agency and university researchers and practitioners interested in livestock pond issues across the Great Plains, including the Canadian prairies region, with a drought emphasis. Members periodically meet online to share information, discuss research needs/gaps and conduct collaborative activities such as articles and grant proposals. 

The idea for the group germinated around 2021, when the USDA Northern Plains Climate Hub was hearing from ranchers about their stock ponds drying up and poor water quality in others, causing cattle illness and death.  

Although the area was experiencing a drought, the ponds hadn’t been this affected in previous dry times. What changed? 

Knutson and a graduate student did a literature review on stock ponds in the northern plains. As part of that project, they also talked with university researchers and state and federal employees working with stock ponds. 

“The answer I got from NRCS is that cost-share funding for livestock water has largely moved from stock ponds to more cost-effective and reliable wells and pipelines,” he said.  

While researchers had expected climate to be a main reason for the ponds’ shifting water quality and quantity, which could be partially to blame, it’s likely a more complicated story also involving policy and government investment. 

Knutson stumbled into a Pandora’s box of interconnected questions about the ponds’ existence, their impact on the environment and various groups’ reliance on them throughout the decades. Even now, new questions and angles arise. 

“Every time I talk to someone new, they bring up a new topic,” he said.  

Several different groups were working with these ponds in different ways. This included individuals, researchers and organizations from North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Canada.  

 Knutson saw an opportunity to bring them together into a shared space.  

In 2022, the working group met virtually to learn more about others’ capacity in working with stock ponds. They started discussing projects related to monitoring and water quality. 

The group’s network started snowballing from there, including connecting with others in the Central and Southern Plains in 2023. Producers in these regions have similar water quality issues with their stock ponds, with more concerns about algae blooms, due in part to nutrient pollution and warmer temperatures. 

The NDMC hosted a virtual symposium in September 2024 to discuss various issues related to this topic and potential collaborative activities among group members. The group plans to meet quarterly to stay connected on research and projects.  

Looking ahead 

Now, over 20 groups across the Great Plains are working together to share information about stock ponds. 

The working group is making progress on two publications about the research issues related to stock ponds in the Central/Southern Plains as well as the Northern Plains.  

Some of the priority research themes are better mapping and monitoring stock ponds. This information would be vital to set baseline water quality monitoring and water supply tracking applications. 

In many ways, the group’s work circumscribing the extent of the ponds’ existence and impacts has just begun. New questions and perspectives about stock ponds continue to emerge, such as ecological issues. 

“There’s such a wide variety of related topics,” Knutson said. “And that list continues to grow every time we talk to someone else.” 

To learn more or join the group, contact Knutson at cknutson1@unl.edu.