South Dakota
Maier Meats provides local meat products to central South Dakota
FT. PIERRE and HAYES, S.D. — A family-owned butcher shop, restaurant and slaughterhouse is helping to fill the demand for local meats in central South Dakota.
Ariana Schumacher /Agweek
Karla and Dennis Maier both come from ranching backgrounds and have both spent time working at various ranches in Montana and South Dakota.
“We just kind of got to the point where we were processing wild game for family and friends and it grew and people would call and ‘the cow broke a leg’ or ‘I’ve got a bull down, do you guys want to cut it up?’” Karla said. “It got to the point where we were doing 15 to 20 a year doing that, and we were like, we need to do something different.”
Ariana Schumacher /Agweek
They opened Maier Meats in February 2021 as a slaughterhouse near Hayes, South Dakota, alongside their son, daughter and daughter-in-law.
“We have a demand for our specialty products as we started making them for local producers they were like ‘oh, I want to buy some of this for my family,’” Karla said. “So, we decided to add a retail outlet and plus we wanted to offer South Dakota ranch raised beef to family consumers.”
Ariana Schumacher /Agweek
They have since opened a retail store in downtown
Ft. Pierre,
in the same building that was once Andy’s Meat Market, a long-time butcher shop built in 1907. That shop had closed in 1969 and had served as the building for several other businesses including the newspaper, a bar, taxidermy shop, electrician’s offices and preschool.
“We wanted to purchase beef from local ranchers, or from ourselves, and process it and have an avenue for the local families to purchase local raised beef,” Karla said.
At their retail location they sell all the cuts of meat from beef and pork, as well as have a restaurant and coffee shop, serving both breakfast and lunch along with drinks throughout the day.
Ariana Schumacher /Agweek
The meat comes from ranches within a 100-mile radius of Ft. Pierre.
“Some of them are life-long friends we’ve known forever and some of them are people who we are just getting to know, but if they have an extra beef ready to get butchered and they are not sure what to do with it, they will call us,” Karla said.
Around 70% of their business is customer butchering. They are a custom-exempt, state-inspected slaughter facility, processing roughly 400 beef a year.
Ariana Schumacher /Agweek
Their son Colton works in their slaughterhouse facility.
“Everybody is able to know where it’s coming from and we are out there seeing where the beef is being raised, I mean, we know most of these people that we are buying it from and can guarantee that we are providing good product for our customers,” Colton said.
Ariana Schumacher /Agweek
Knowing where the meat comes from is a key component to the Maier Meats business.
“With the open borders, with our meat coming across Mexico and Canada, you don’t really know where your meat is coming from,” Karla said. “People can come in here and know that it is local ranch-raised beef. It came just 20 miles down the road or 50 miles down the road from a local rancher. Might even be friend of theirs and I think that just adds some comfort to what they are consuming on a daily basis.”
Ariana Schumacher /Agweek
The central South Dakota community has shown the business their continued support.
“The community has been really good. I mean we are booked out through March right now. Tons of support, they are buying our local products that we source from them and just an overwhelming community support,” Colton said.
“COVID kind of changed the dynamics of our product’s availability and more and more people are looking for opportunities to find local, ranch-raised beef. And we are providing that outlet,” Karla said.
Ariana Schumacher / Agweek
Karla said they do expect to grow and hopefully bring on some other employees.
“Eventually we would like to get some partners that would help work the business and grow it with us,” Karla said.
RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) – Students at South Dakota Mines heard Wednesday from retired four-star general Maryanne Miller about her journey to the highest ranks of the U.S. military.
Miller is a retired four-star U.S. Air Force general. She is the only member of the Air Force Reserve ever to be promoted to this level.
She spoke about finding greatness and living a life of fulfillment. Her stories came from her time in the Air Force and as a volunteer for Saint Teresa of Calcutta’s Missionaries of Charity.
“We so much get focused on what is our next step in life, what’s the next career move, how do we make ourselves better in our career, and we forget about how do we make ourselves better as a human being,” Miller said. “Because they have to go tandem. If it’s not tandem, you’re going to get off track.”
Miller was commissioned in 1981 and rose through the ranks before becoming a four-star general in 2018. She was the only woman serving as a four-star officer in the military at the time. She retired in 2020 after serving for almost 40 years.
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South Dakota
USDA to offer distaster assistance to South Dakota agriculture producers impacted by winter storms
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture is offering financial and technical assistance to South Dakota farmers and livestock producers who may have been impacted by the recent winter storms.
“I encourage impacted producers to contact their local USDA Service Center to report losses and learn more about program options available to assist in their recovery from crop, land, infrastructure, and livestock losses and damages.” said Richard Fordyce, Production and Conservation Under Secretary.
FSA’s Emergency Conservation Program and Emergency Forest Restoration Program can assist landowners with financial assistance to restore damaged land and conservation structures or forests.
“Our staff will work one-on-one with landowners to make assessments of the damages and develop methods that focus on effective recovery of the land.” said Jessica Michalski, Acting NRCS State Conservationist in South Dakota.
For more information about the disaster assistance program, click here.
Copyright 2026 Dakota News Now. All rights reserved.
South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden, left, and Lt. Gov. Tony Venhuizen unveil a plaque for retired U.S. Navy Capt. E. Royce Williams in the Hall of Honor at the Capitol in Pierre on March 25, 2026. (Photo by Meghan O’Brien/South Dakota Searchlight)
PIERRE, S.D. (South Dakota Searchlight) — There’s a new name in the South Dakota Hall of Honor at the state Capitol building.
One-hundred-year-old South Dakota native and retired U.S. Navy Capt. E. Royce Williams was celebrated at a Wednesday ceremony where a plaque honoring him was unveiled, although Williams did not attend.
“In spite of being outnumbered and facing incredible danger, Captain Williams engaged the enemy with courage and skill,” said Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden. “Our state has always had a strong tradition of service, and Captain Williams is the very best of that tradition.”
President Donald Trump awarded Williams the Medal of Honor, the country’s highest military honor, at the State of the Union address earlier this year. The medal honors actions by Williams that had been classified for decades.
“His story was secret for over 50 years, he didn’t even want to tell his wife, but the legend grew and grew,” Trump said during the speech in February. “But tonight, at 100 years old, this brave Navy captain is finally getting the recognition he deserves.”
On Nov. 18, 1952, over Korean coastal waters during the Korean War, then-Lt. Williams, from Wilmot, South Dakota, led three F9F Panthers against seven Soviet MiG-15s. He disabled three enemy jets and damaged a fourth.
The Soviet jets, according to the U.S. Naval Institute, were “superior to the F9F in almost every fashion.” The mission was the only direct overwater combat between U.S. Navy fighters and Soviet fighters during the Cold War.
Williams, one of 11 Medal of Honor recipients from South Dakota, now lives in California. The Hall of Honor at the South Dakota Capitol is located in the hallway that visitors enter immediately after going through security.
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