Drought lingers on in South Dakota, still dinging crops as winter wheat planting begins slowly.
According to USDA’s ag-statistics service in Sioux Falls, 5 percent of the state’s projected winter- wheat crop was planted in the week ended Sunday, Sept. 10, which is behind the five-year norm of 9 percent by this time.
Winter wheat is planted in the fall and harvested the following summer.
Acres harvested this year of winter wheat planted in the fall of 2016 were at the lowest levels in decades, both because poor prices cut planting a year ago and because drought wrecked much of the crop.
The ag-statistics service said on Monday that topsoil moisture dried out a little last week: 46 percent of it statewide was rated short or very short of moisture, compared with 45 percent the previous week.
Meanwhile, the national Drought Monitor map issued out of the University of Nebraska showed that, despite cooler conditions and recent rains in many parts of South Dakota last month, the drought actually expanded in the week ended Sept. 5.
The damage from the drought shows up in the the weekly, crop-progress reports issued by USDA’s ag-statistics service, which have showed the wheat, corn, soybeans and sunflowers in much poorer shape than normally shows up each summer.
For the week ended Sunday, Sept. 10, the state’s corn crop was ranked 10 percent in very poor shape and 16 percent in poor shape; that’s the same figures as the previous week.
Corn, soybeans and sunflowers all are behind normal maturity by this date, which can be typical in drought years.
This year, too, winter wheat has a larger-than-normal discount of $1.85 to $2 per bushel less than the price of hard-red spring wheat, making more farmers think about waiting until next spring to plant wheat, he said.