Jerauld County, in South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Jerauld County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Jerauld County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Jerauld County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Jerauld County — the short answer
Jerauld County, South Dakota: USDA zone 5a, about 183 days between hard freezes, across 337K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~183
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 337K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 5a is Jerauld County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Jerauld County's 183-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Jerauld County
Across a year, Jerauld County accumulates about 2,587 growing degree days above 50°F, about 161 more than the middle South Dakota county — ahead of 44 of South Dakota’s 66 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Jerauld County
Across Jerauld County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Ethan, Houdek, and Clarno are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.7–7.2, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
9%
Hydric soils
12%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Jerauld County
The USDA soil survey maps 75% of Jerauld County as well drained — but another 25% drains differently: 10% poorly drained, 10% moderately well drained.
Ethan is the most extensive named soil at 15% of mapped acres, then Houdek (12%) and Clarno (8%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Jerauld County
Each reading below is measured for Jerauld County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Jerauld County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Jerauld County runs about pH 6.7–7.2, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredJerauld County runs about 183 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredJerauld County sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Jerauld County is in
Jerauld County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Northwestern Glaciated Plains (58%) and Northern Glaciated Plains (42%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Jerauld County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Jerauld County's own USDA zone 5a and its own 183-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile.
Is it too late to plant in Jerauld County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Jerauld County
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Jerauld County
USGS estimates 103,602 lb of Glyphosate on Jerauld County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (17,919 lb) and Dicamba (12,349 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Jerauld County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Jerauld County — 67 documented sites across 3 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 brownfield sites. Former commercial or industrial land where legacy contamination may persist.
The federal record across Jerauld County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Jerauld County
Closest first, across Jerauld County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WESSINGTON SPRINGS WIND ENERGY CENTERBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- JERAULD CO HWY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- MOTOR CLINICUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- ALS STANDARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- HUMM DINGERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- WESSINGTON SPRINGS HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- JERAULD CO FARMERS UNIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- WESSINGTON SPRINGS SCH. DIST.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- AVERA WESKOTA MEMORIAL MED CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- 108N64W31CCDDNitrate · 4.3 mi
- 106N64W 6AAAANitrate · 4.5 mi
- 106N66W24BAAANitrate · 7.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Jerauld County's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Jerauld County.
Severity Distribution
across Jerauld County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Jerauld County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 54 sites across Jerauld County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Jerauld County
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Jerauld County average
Your land is one point inside Jerauld County
Everything above resolves to Jerauld County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 337K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at county scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better county average.
Your Lot vs the Jerauld County Average
Jerauld County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Jerauld County
- ●One soil character for all of Jerauld County
- ●Frost dates read at Jerauld County's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Jerauld County's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Jerauld County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Jerauld County, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Jerauld County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Jerauld County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Jerauld County average
How we know this about Jerauld County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Jerauld County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Jerauld County
When does frost risk typically end in Jerauld County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Jerauld County typically lands around Apr 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about May 9.
How long is the growing season in Jerauld County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Jerauld County sees about 183 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 4, about 148 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Jerauld County?
The federal record around Jerauld County shows 67 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (54), the nearest Brownfields record about 2.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
Everything above is measured at Jerauld County's scale — its 5a band and its 183-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Jerauld County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads South Dakota's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Jerauld County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Jerauld County's own scale — its own ~183-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 67 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Jerauld County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Jerauld County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~183-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Jerauld CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 67 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 2.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Jerauld County's boundary and the 336,725 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~183-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Jerauld County spans, Northwestern Glaciated Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Jerauld County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Jerauld County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every South Dakota grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom South Dakota
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Jerauld County — the ~183 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Jerauld County's 336,725 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 67 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Jerauld Countyread your own land →