A cow in a pasture near Eureka in September 2024. (Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight)

South Dakota State University is working to get back about $66 million in federal funding it lost when the Trump administration canceled a grant program it said was a “climate slush fund.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded South Dakota’s largest university $86 million in 2023 to research the impact of bison and cattle ranchers’ land management practices on soil health, and to open markets for farmers and ranchers using those practices. It was the largest research grant in South Dakota higher education history.

The grant came from the Partners for Climate-Smart Commodities program. Since 2022 during the Biden administration, the USDA had awarded 141 projects across the country a total of $3

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