ABERDEEN - Former South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture Jay Swisher has died at the age of 86.

Swisher served as ag secretary in the administrations of Republican governors George Mickelson and Walter Dale Miller.

Swisher died Friday at Avera St. Luke's Hospital in Aberdeen.

The rural Groton farmer had one of the state's first herds of Normande cattle, a French breed.

Rural Britton farmer Curtis Jones described Swisher as a sincere guy interested in agriculture.