Jasper: Planting Progress ‘Just on the Verge of a Good Start’

From north to south, South Dakota goes from wet conditions to dry. The U.S. Drought Monitor for South Dakota published the last day of April, 2026, shows drought intensity increasing from north to south. Terry Jaspers, who farms at Sisseton, says lakes and ponds in that area are as high as they’ve ever been, which has stalled fieldwork for him and his neighbors.

“We didn't get a lot of snow this past winter, but we did get quite a bit of moisture early in the fall. So, our soil profile is really in pretty good shape,” Jaspers told the South Dakota Soybean Network during a recent interview. “There's been some fertilizer spread. I've spread some fertilizer on our farm and I've got some neighbors that have planted some small grain and mainly oats for livestock feed, and a little bit of wheat.”

Jaspers is confident that with a few more days of warmer weather to raise soil temperatures and dry out the land, he and other area farmers will see a more rapid advancement of fieldwork.

“I think we're within a week or so here of really starting to make some planting progress,” he said. “Right now, it's pretty slow, but we're just on the verge of getting a good start.”

Despite those northeastern counties being cold and wet, Jaspers, who has been a board member on the South Dakota Soybean Research and Promotion Council (SDSRPC) since February, has completed just a little planting, and at the time of the interview, looked forward to completing more.

“I'm going to be planting probably some wheat here, probably tomorrow the way it looks,” he said. “I've talked to our local CHS agronomist. They've spread some fertilizer and we've got a field or two of soybeans that have been put in and just a little bit of corn.”

At the time of the interview on Friday, May 1^st, the weather in the area of the Jaspers farm, roughly at the corner of Day, Marshall and Roberts Counties in South Dakota, was still not conducive to much more than just the beginnings of widespread planting progress.

“We got about an inch of rain or so last weekend and ever since then it's been so cold that just about every morning we've had some frost in the ground. So, the soil has been real slow to warm up and I think people are a little reluctant especially to put corn in the ground when the soil is quite that cold. But I think as soon as it warms up here, we'll see the planters moving.”

After recent car travel, Jaspers’ personal observation of fieldwork in the eastern edge of the state confirms what the Drought Monitor says about South Dakota.

“You know, once you start getting south of Watertown along the interstate and especially as you get down toward Sioux Falls in the southeast corner, there's significant planting progress down that direction,” said Jaspers, “So you've got to get about a hundred miles south of us before you see a lot of planting going on.”