It was also quite windy, but blowing from the east. Eventually the rains came - at times it sounded like there might be hail also but we didn't see any. We saw a lot of lightning to the northwest, but it wasn't too bad right where we are. I was concerned because we are in a grassland area that has not had rain for a while (the camphost said that they stopped letting him mow the grass here at the beginning of July due to concerns of fire by any sparks that might be caused by mowing) - if lightning started a fire, I guess it could get out of control pretty quickly.
This is an article about a fire earlier this summer in the greater grassland area that we are in: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/missouri/articles/2017-07-10/grass-fire-scorches-little-missouri-national-grassland
Little Missouri National Grassland: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Missouri_National_Grassland
This article about camping areas in the grassland mentions the Buffalo Gap Campground where we're staying: https://forestcamping.com/dow/northern/lminfo.htm
As we have been driving around here, we've seen a number of large round bales out in the field - but the grass looks so thin that I wonder how they make hay from it. In association with that, I've been wondering how many acres are needed per cow/calf pair here versus in Virginia where my brother's farm is. I found this information today: http://www.publiclandsranching.org/htmlres/fs_livestock_feed_acreage.htm
The map on that page does not include North Dakota and South Dakota... so I'm not sure that the numbers are representative for this area. It is certain that the size of the fields where cattle are grazing are huge -- I would guess hundreds of acres -- but I don't know how long they are kept in one field before being moved to another.
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