Post

South Dakota farmers ‘very fortunate’

South Dakota’s crop progress is still ahead of average but crop conditions continue to decline with little or no rain. Stock water supplies and range and pasture conditions continued to decline as well.

Corn and soybeans are showing stress in several areas of the state, and although isolated showers fell in a few areas, most of the state received little or none.

Still, compared to some of the Eastern Corn Belt states, Dell Rapids farmer Rodney Koch says South Dakota could be worse off.

“We’re very fortunate, I would say,” Koch, surveying the Minnehaha County countryside, told Brownfield Ag News. “You hear a lot of horror stories any direction you go from here, so I would consider ourselves pretty darn fortunate.”

Winter wheat harvest is 11 percent done. The corn averages 43 inches high as of Sunday. That’s ahead of the five year average of 26 inches. Soybeans are 29 percent blooming, ahead of the five year average of 8 percent.

“Corn’s coming right and the beans are looking good, and if we can hook a rain here pretty soon, another week or two, we’ll be in pretty good shape,” said Koch, who also runs a construction company.

There is, however, very little moisture reserve, according to the South Dakota office of USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. Topsoil moisture is only 28 percent adequate to surplus, but 72 percent is short to very short.

AUDIO: Rodney Koch (1 min. MP3)