PIEDMONT, S.D. - In an effort to traverse each state in the America, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to South Dakota on Wednesday for a peek into ranch life.
And while visiting the Norman family ranch in Piedmont, Zuckerberg was given a first-hand look at the drought that’s shaken the state’s agriculture economy to its core in 2017.
“South Dakota is in its third year of a bad drought, and that makes it tough to feed the cattle,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post. “One of the ranchers told me it’s the worst he can remember - and maybe the worst since the 1930s.”
Zuckerberg wrote of the challenges the Norman family has faced in 2017, like industry regulations or a volatile cattle trading market, but he said the family is optimistic technology will make life easier to make it in the ag business in the future.
And he expressed his thanks for what South Dakota ranchers like the Normans do to make life easier for their fellow Americans.
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“Thanks to the Normans for welcoming me into their home,” Zuckerberg wrote. “Families like theirs don’t always get a lot of credit, but we depend on the work they do.”
