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South Dakota’s Agriculture Department to merge with Environment & Natural Resources

The South Dakota Department of Agriculture is merging with the Department of Environment & Natural Resources. Governor Kristi Noem’s office says the new department, the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, will be headed by Hunter Roberts, the current Secretary of Environment & Natural Resources. The Department of Agriculture has been under interim leadership of Lieutenant Governor Larry Rhoden since the retirement of Kim Vanneman, who served as South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture until May.

Hunter Roberts, who ranches in Lyman and Stanley Counties, was an agriculture policy adviser to Governor Dennis Daugaard. He’s the grandson of Clint Roberts, who was South Dakota’s Secretary of Agriculture under Governor Bill Janklow in 1979 and 1980.