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Eastern South Dakota farmer says timely rains have crops off to a strong start

A farmer in eastern South Dakota says conditions look great heading into the growing season.

“We’re really lucky, it’s kind of a garden spot right here.”

Paul Casper, who farms in Kingsbury County, tells Brownfield the surrounding areas have been dry, but on his farm…

“Oh my gosh, we’ve got corn knee high. We’re starting to do our second flush of fertilizer. Some of the shorter corn we’re just finishing up spraying now.”

He says the soybeans have filled in well.

Casper says while the timely rains have been good for crop growth, it makes managing weeds like waterhemp and kochia more challenging.

“It kind of likes to sneak in there in spots where it’s a little bit marginal population in beans and stuff,” he says. “I put all my pre-down last fall, and that seems to be working very good. It held this out, luckily, till now. Some farmers put their pre-down right during planting because it was so weird and cold that it didn’t work as good as they liked.”

USDA says South Dakota’s corn is emerging with conditions rated 62 percent good to excellent. Soybean planting is nearing completion, with conditions of the emerged crop rated 60 percent good to excellent.