SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - South Dakota farmers were able to plant more this year than they did last year despite spring storms and flooding.
A total of 1,279,908 acres were not planted this year, including 897,773 acres of corn and 296,425 acres of soybeans. That number is down 67.6% from 2019 when nearly 4 million acres was not planted, which made it the most acres of any state. But this year’s 1.2 million acres made South Dakota the second hardest-hit state in the country, the Argus Leader reported.
Brown County had the worst numbers this year. A total of 105,684 acres was not planted, which is 22.41% of the acres there.
U.S. Department of Agriculture figures released this week show that about 9.3 million acres in the nation’s crop insurance program were not planted this year, which is the third most acres since the department began keeping tracking it in 2007. Last year, a dozen Midwestern states affected by floods and heavy rainfall contributed to that number. But this year, North Dakota, South Dakota and Arkansas accounted for about half the acres that were not planted.
Even with improvements in this year’s crop yield, farmers are still recovering from last year’s revenue loss, said Scott VanderWal, president of the South Dakota Farm Bureau and vice president of the American Farm Bureau.
“That’s something that takes a long time to heal up from,” VanderWal said.
Farmers are also dealing with the pandemic, which VanderWal said caused markets to go “backwards.”
“People were looking for a chance to make a little money and then all of the sudden the coronavirus came along,” VanderWal said.
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