BELLE FOURCHE, S.D. — In the blurry days following the western South Dakota blizzard that devastated her family’s ranching operation, Jimmie Kammerer sometimes found herself in the pasture, walking among the few surviving cows.

“I would just go out and look at the cows that were still standing and thank God for them,” said Kammerer. She and her husband, Riley, lost 85 percent of their herd in an early October storm that cut a swath of destruction across western South Dakota, downing power lines, stranding motorists and killing more than 43,000 cows.

“It gave me hope,” Kammerer said.

Hope is exactly what many ranchers said they clung to as they grappled with a stunning loss, many of them within days or weeks of taking their cattle to market and bringing home an annual paycheck.

Now half a year out from the tragedy, and well into a spring that has offered plenty of moisture, a new calf crop and optimistic forecasts for the beef market, ranchers say they are slowly recovering and looking to the future.

“It does me well to look outside and see green grass and the calves running around with their tails up in the air,” said Amber West, who along with her husband, Zach, manages a ranch 15 miles south of Union Center. The couple lost almost 70 percent of their herd in the storm, dubbed Atlas.

Ranchers also received another bit of good news this week, as the final round of a $5.4 million Ranchers Relief Fund will be distributed to eligible ranchers affected by the blizzard.

It’s just one leg of help, said Silvia Christen, executive director of the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association, based in Rapid City.

“This did resonate with people,” she said, adding that the Ranchers Relief Fund accepted donations from “every state in the country and several foreign countries.”