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Areas of drought-stricken South Dakota battle mud

Many South Dakota farmers were devastated by drought, but others had too much rain.  East Central South Dakota farmer Paul Casper has had more than 32 inches of rain since late July.

“We’ve got water like I’ve never seen before,” Casper, who farms at Lake Preston, South Dakota, told Brownfield Ag News Monday afternoon.  “We’ve got things stuck and we made it through bean harvest without wrecking anything, but sure left a lot of ruts.  We started on corn here last Wednesday; it’s actually worse than the bean field, so it’s been really trying.”

Casper says people are crying for rain 50 to 70 miles from him, but it’s not the case where he is.  His soybean yields are well off last year’s.

“Our up-ground was pretty good yield, but we had so much drowned-outs that brought our yield down, so we averaged the mid-45s here,” said Casper.  “We had pieces of ground that were up above that did really well, in the low-50s to mid-50s, and I know there’s been some other people that have said the same thing.”

Harvest is slow.  Casper has a track-equipped tractor standing by for the frequent times that other equipment is stuck in the mud.  The combine is slowed by corn that was bent over from a high wind.

“It’s just one of those trying falls and we just want to take our time and try not to get anybody hurt first of all,” he said.  “Anytime you have to start hooking tow ropes up, it’s not the way you’d like to do things, but so far it’s went pretty well.”

Casper’s corn is yielding 175 to 185 bushels to the acre, which is better than he expected.

AUDIO: Paul Casper (6 min. MP3)