South Dakota Crop Conditions Vary Widely

A soybean farmer attending Dakotafest at Mitchell characterized South Dakota crop conditions in a single word: variable. From severely dry in the southern part of the state to a garden spot in the northeast, the state’s weather pattern has driven a wide disparity in predicted crop yields.

South Dakota Soybean Association board member Tanner Hento of Avon spent the season hoping for rain that, for the most part, failed to materialize. Although his area has recovered some, at one point during the summer Hento’s farm was in a drought area rated by the National Integrated Drought Information System as D4 – its most severe rating, officially referred to as exceptional drought.

“Bon Homme County is looking pretty tough. The rain was pretty sparse, less than 10 inches of rain total for the year,” Hento lamented during a conversation at South Dakota Soybean’s Dakotafest tent. “All things considered, we're probably fortunate the corn is as tall as it is, but we're going to have a lot of fields that have a zero yield. Soybeans, if you're really fortunate, maybe 40 to 50 bushels [to the acre] if we get a few more rains, but you're going to see a lot of 20s and 30s [bushels to the acre] in Avon as well, and it gets worse the further you get to the river.”

Meanwhile, northeastern South Dakota is a different, better story. Board member Dan Nigg at Sisseton had some doubts to start the season but has since experienced an excellent year.

“We were a little wet to start and a little cold this spring,” said Nigg, “but it took off. Three weeks ago, we got a seven-inch rain one night and thought it'd be terrible. Within a week, you couldn't even tell it rained. I mean, that's how much it soaked it up.”

Jeff Kloucek at Scotland in northern Bon Homme County says at this stage, some of the crops in his area look good, some not so good.

“It really depends on [the location], if you were under the right rain cloud or not. There’re beans that are really looking tough right now; missed out on the last few rains here the last couple of weeks and they're going backwards and losing some height and canopies opening back up, starting to see some weeds popping through,” explained Kloucek, who also works as a crop consultant. “But then there's spots, you know, where they caught the rains and you know, they're going to have a decent bean crop over there too.”

Kevin Deinert of Mount Vernon west of Mitchell has gotten some rain lately, but he’s not sure whether it’s going to help this year’s crop.

“During that crucial late June, July timeframe, we missed a lot of rains, either small rains or no rain,” said Deinert, a past president of the South Dakota Soybean Association. “I think that's what's really going to drive our yields down.”

Bruce Haines, a member of the South Dakota Soybean Checkoff board who farms a few miles south of Mitchell is in much the same straits as Deinert, having missed a lot of the rain. Despite that, he manages a philosophical shrug about the dry year.

“It happens in South Dakota,” Haines said, referring to maintaining a positive outlook during drought. “It's part of what we do. It's part of how we live. It's what we work for. And we farm on hope. I'm like everybody else; I still got hope in my veins, so I'll be back next year.”