White River Badlands 43i. Keya Paha Tablelands 43j. Moreau Prairie 43k. It is a semiarid rolling plain of shale, siltstone, and sandstone punctuated by occasional buttes and badlands. Native grasslands persist in areas of steep or broken topography, but they have been largely replaced by spring wheat and alfalfa over most of the ecoregion.
Agriculture is limited by erratic precipitation patterns and limited opportunities for irrigation.
W est of the Cheyenne river, the Semiarid Pierre Shale Plains take on a drier aspect. Although the precipitation is only one or two inches less per year than in ecoregion 43f, successful yields for tilled crops occur more infrequently than they do further east. In this region the mixed-greass prairie has a predominance of shortgrass species, e.g., little bluestem and buffalograss. Undulating to rolling plains. Steep-sided, incised stream channels.