News

Heavy rain delays South Dakota harvest

Southeastern South Dakota farmer Dave Poppens looks forward to harvest but will have a longer wait on his farm near Sioux Falls.

“We’ve had about six inches of rain in the last two days here,” Poppens told Brownfield Ag News Thursday.

After a wet spring, Poppens is pleased that some of his corn is projected to make 185 bushels to the acre.

“A lot of the beans were planted after the first of June,” said Poppens, “but the earlier variety beans, with the warmer weather we had last week, I think we probably could have got started [with harvest] on a couple of fields this week if we wouldn’t have had the rain.”

There’s less rain in other areas.  About a hundred miles north, Paul Casper is also unable to run the combine because of rain, but he’s heard of others not far from his farm who have been able to do some harvesting.

“They got some beans out,” Casper told Brownfield Ag News.  “The yield is really good, and so we’re hoping here that this weather kind of straightens out; we’ve got either side of three inches of rain here now.”

Casper has had plenty of rain through the whole summer and says he’s been pretty lucky in that regard.

“I think,” said Casper, “the corn’s going to be really, really good.”

AUDIO: Dave Poppens (3 min. MP3)

AUDIO: Paul Casper (5 min. MP3)