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South Dakota | It's funny that you bring this up, cause I was just thinking bout about it. When I was a kid, the eastern 1/3 of South Dakota was about as far as corn went west. Now you see corn all across the state. The western half of the state is still 75% rangeland, but you see more corn where small grains were. Why is that? Three reasons: genetics, price, and the big one, rainfall. If you look back at state records, have seen our rainfall averages go up 3-8 inches. In my area, southeast sd, we had an average annual precipitation listed in the 1980's as 22.81, now it's 26.51. Think how much our rainfall has gone up in the last 10 years to pull the 60-70 year average up nearly four inches. This cycle will end. If you look at water table levels and lake levels, we are approaching historic highs. I think genetics will keep corn production good, but people have become way too comfortable with the extra rain. | |
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Weather Talk
