South Dakota Crop Planting Stalled
April 2018 will go down in the history books as a very tough time for farmers and producers. We received over 30 inches of snow.
A normal Winter brings 42 inches total. So we had three fourths of a Winter's worth of snow in the month of April. It was one of the toughest calving seasons ever, and of course it kept farmers from getting planting underway.
Planting of spring wheat is finally getting started in South Dakota.
The federal Agriculture Department says in its weekly crop report that 2 percent of the crop is in the ground, well behind the five-year average of 50 percent. Last year at this time, nearly 75 percent of the spring wheat was seeded.
About 2 percent of the oats crop also is planted, behind the average pace of 54 percent.
The state's winter wheat crop remains mostly in fair-to-good condition.
Topsoil moisture supplies are rated 87 percent adequate to surplus, up from 82 percent. Subsoil moisture is 72 percent in that category, up from 63 percent.
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