News

Recent rains should help the SD row crops

The U.S. Drought Monitor says dry conditions improved in South Dakota in the last week.

Laura Edwards, the state climatologist with South Dakota State University Extension, says the increased rainfall in the southeastern part of the state has been helpful for many in agriculture.

“Week by week, sometimes we don’t see significant increases in moisture that benefit, but as we look out a few weeks, we’ve seen improvements. There’s also been much cooler temperatures the last few weeks.”

Edwards says the rains are coming too late to help the small grains and give much improvement to forages, but this could be helpful for the corn.

“We’re just starting our tasseling stage in the corn. Right now, we’re in a really good situation. Our concern is the longer-term forecast when temperatures are expected to warm up and we hope that heat isn’t too extreme.”

She says soybean conditions remain variable across eastern South Dakota and it’s too soon to know how the drought has affected some of the soybeans.

Photo credit: A soybean field near Mitchell – taken by Chad Blindauer