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South Dakota corn harvest off to good start

A farmer in south central South Dakota started corn harvest Monday and says the crop is above average so far.

Trent Kubik, who farms near Winner, says the test weight is good considering the smaller kernels due to the dry conditions and when it comes down to the yield…

“We’re still doing the math, but it should come around to about 110 bushels/acre, which is average for us,” he says. “But if that’s the lowest we’re going to get, we’re not doing bad this year.”

Kubik says the rest of the corn won’t be harvested for another two weeks so there’s more time for the crop to dry down. He says a lack of rain in the last month has affected the soybeans and what started as a “home run crop” has changed drastically.

“Not all soybeans are a failure or a loss, but a lot of our farm missed a lot of the August rains. The waist high soybeans we have, we tried to keep those plants green, but pod fill was challenging. Our soybeans went backwards quickly and we think at least 20 bushels/acre came off of our soybean yield.”

Kubik says soybeans are dropping leaves, but some of that is stress induced and there could be a few fields ready to harvest by the end of the month.