PIERRE, S.D.(DRGNews)- The South Dakota Brand Board has created a new supervisory model for its brand inspection program.

Board President Scott Vance says this model will help ensure consistency across the inspection program.

Vance says under this model, district supervisors will oversee a total of 122 brand inspectors in three west river districts.

Vance says on average, brand inspectors check 1.68 million head of livestock each year.

Brand inspections are only required on the western side of South Dakota. The livestock ownership area was created by the legislature in 1943.

District 1, supervised by Walt Brindley, includes Harding, Perkins, Butte, Meade, Lawrence and Pennington counties.

District 2, supervised by Doug Paxton, includes Corson, Dewey, Ziebach, Haakon, Stanley and Jackson counties.

District 3, supervised by Joel Olivier, includes Custer, Fall River, Oglala Lakota, Bennett, Todd, Mellette, Jones, Lyman, Tripp and Gregory counties.

A full list of brand inspectors is available on the Brand Board’s website.