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South Dakota corn harvest behind, but soybeans ahead of normal

Warm and dry conditions dominated the weather pattern across South Dakota this past week, allowing almost all the winter wheat to get planted.

Corn is 91 percent mature and 19 percent harvested, which is behind the average of 45 percent by this time.  Corn is 74 percent good to excellent.

Soybeans are 88 percent harvested, which is ahead of the average – 77 percent done by this time.  Matt Bainbridge at Ethan says both progress and yield of his soybean harvest is beating his expectations.

“We’re down to 200 to 210 acres [of soybeans left to harvest] I guess, and so far we have a little over 47 bushel to the acre average, so we’re just extremely happy with that,” said Bainbridge.  “We thought they were maybe even 10 bushels less than that, so we’re really happy.”

South Dakota sorghum is 88 percent mature and 48 percent harvested, which is ahead of last year but behind normal.

Sunflower harvest is 11 percent done.  Normal by this time is 33 percent.

AUDIO: Matt Bainbridge (1 min. MP3)