PIERRE - A Vale-area rancher who has been appointed to the South Dakota Brand Board says she doesn't expect much trouble learning how to fill her new role.

Gov. Mike Rounds appointed Wanda Blair to the five-member board last week. She takes over the slot vacated by Lyndell Petersen earlier this year. His term runs through January 2010.

Blair, who also is vice president of the South Dakota Farm Bureau and a member of the South Dakota Cattlemen's Association, said she thinks she'll be a good fit on the brand board.

"I don't know that I'm going (on the board) with a whole lot of opinions. Everything for us here as producers has worked out really great. I think the previous administrators did a good job of treating our inspectors, so I don't think that part's going to be very hard," Blair said.

"I think I want to give myself a little bit of time to learn how they're doing things and how maybe they're doing things a little different that the previous people did. But I don't think there's going to be much trouble."

She went to a meeting last week in Sturgis that was arranged by some people critical of a change in the brand inspection process. The group includes members from various farm and ranch organizations, and Blair represents the Farm Bureau.

During the meeting, Blair said she talked with Petersen and another previous board member, Dan Lindblom, who told her some of the issues being discussed now are not new.

"Not every problem is a new problem," she said.

The State Brand Board was created in 1937. The state recently took over the brand inspection process from the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association, which had run the inspection program for years.

The Stockgrowers Association has criticized how the Brand Board administers the program. In a release, the group said the Brand Board does not have fair representation of the Stockgrowers. It also wants the board elected from throughout the West River brand inspection area.

The next Brand Board meeting, on Jan. 21, will be Blair's first regular meeting as a member.

She is the fourth woman to serve on the board. Queena Stewart of Buffalo Gap was on the board in its infancy. Also serving were Dorothy Noonan of Highmore in 1986 and Lois Bieber of Leola in 1991.