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Southern MN | Reading the post below about ND ag got me wondering about SD changes in farming through the years. When I was a boy in the 70’s several local farmers purchased or farmed land in SD, where exactly am not sure. They were all in wheat country, as they would haul their equipment out their as the seasons were different than our corn and soybean seasons. None of them lasted very long, and was told drought was part of the reason. Also had a relative sell his land here and move to the Brookings area I believe during the later 70’s. Things went great, he was raising 60 bushel soybeans on land worth a fraction of ours at the time, new house, swimming pool, etc and then was sold out a few years later. Again if I remember correctly crop failures had a lot to do with it. Am also a history and RR fan and remember reading about the M&STL’s Watertown branch around the turn of the 20th century and how Watertown boomed to a town of over 5000? In a couple years and than back to a ghost town when it turned dry.
Anyway it seems during the majority of my adult life crop failures and drought conditions in SD have been rare. In fact it seems the Sioux Falls, Brookings and Watertown areas seem to get more reliable rainfall, especially during the later part of the growing season than we do. Probably too long of a post, just curious have rainfall patterns changed that much? Are farming practices that much better to mitigate weather issues? Or are the examples I cited just wrong or did those periods just happen to be the major droughts that were an anomaly and not the norm. | |
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SD historical precip question
