Crop Planting in Crisis
For our South Dakota and neighbor states farmers, this planting season is a crisis. It is real pain for our producers out there.
It has been the coldest and wettest month of May that I can ever remember seeing. And it has had a detrimental impact on farmers trying to get their corn and soybeans in the ground.
We are nearing the point of it being too late to plant corn. To put things in perspective, normally by now, around 90 percent of corn would be planted, but only a very small percentage has been put in the ground so far.
If farmers do get their corn in yet this year, this late of planting will result in low yields. That combined with low prices equates to a crisis.
Soybeans are not in a good position by any means either. Normally at this time of the year, around two thirds of the crop would be planted by now. The last crop report only showed six percent of beans in the ground.
The weather-related issues come at a difficult time for farmers, who already face market pressures from international trade disputes and weakened enforcement of the federal ethanol mandate.