15 Jul Jada: South Dakota crops are thirsty

As you look around at the crops, things are getting serious here- the crops are thirsty. Wheat yields are ranging drastically and it depends if farmers were blessed with rain showers and whether they planted winter or spring wheat. West river’s wheat harvest is going quickly and the spring wheat is yielding around 10 bu/ac. The quality is good with test weights of 59 and 14 protein. Winter wheat is faring better with yields ranging anywhere from 40 to 80 bu/ac. The quality is good.

We are looking forward to getting our headers in the wheat to find out what the yields in the fields we’ll be cutting will register as. Hopefully the wheat doesn’t “bake” too much before it is ready to be harvested. The corn is not doing well at all. Pictured in this post is corn planted in a field that was previously sod. The talk around the town- Mobridge, SD- was it was the nicest field in the county. With lack of moisture and high temperatures in the 90’s – 100’s, things turned sour quickly. You can visibly see how dry the poor corn is. The land here in Mobridge, SD is really sandy and requires a lot of moisture. If rain doesn’t strike soon many other fields will follow the same fate. Things are not quite as dry in the Bowdle area, but the reality is our fall crops are thirsty.

All Aboard Harvest is sponsored by High Plains Journal and Syngenta. Jada Bulgin can be reached at jada@allaboardharvest.com.