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Droughts are a normal occurrence in the Great Plains and negatively impact ranching operations' financial, environmental, and biological resources. We conducted a systematic sample survey of 954 cattle ranching operations in the western two-thirds of Nebraska and South Dakota in 2014 to evaluate ranchers' opinions and management decisions related to droughts that occurred in 2012 through 2014. The survey had a response rate of 44%. Respondents indicated that droughts were extremely to moderately harmful to rangeland health (70%), animal production (65%), cash reserves (65%), and value of the ranch operation (37%). During the widespread drought of 2012, producers used multiple drought management strategies to cope with low forage production by feeding purchased hay or supplements (64%), feeding own hay stockpiles (86%), grazing fall or winter pastures earlier than planned (51%), and grazing cover crops or crop residues (54%). Producers also delayed spring turnout (57%), weaned calves earlier (55%), sold cull animals earlier than usual (63%), and 48% reduced breeding animal numbers by less than 25%. Although ranchers used many strategies to deal with low forage supplies, only 28% thought that financial outcomes of their management decisions during drought were predictable and controllable, whereas 61% of the respondents indicated that the financial outcomes were unpredictable and/or uncontrollable and 11% were uncertain as to the outcome. It is apparent from these results that effective outreach regarding drought preparedness could be beneficial to producers preparing for drought conditions. These programs potentially include holistic approaches to drought planning including alternatives to minimize financial impacts, i.e. trigger dates to implement management decisions, tools to access weather and market forecasts, using conservative carrying capacity estimates, and flexible livestock options such as diversified enterprises, e.g. yearling backgrounding.