South Dakota farmers are about three weeks behind planting small grains, like spring wheat. That’s according to Ruth Beck, SDSU Extension Agronomy Field Specialist in the Pierre regional office. She says with the cool, wet weather farmers have essentially no seeding done, which is well behind past years.
She says if growers are kept out of the fields until the end of the month they’ll have to consider alternative crops.
Beck says one of the advantages of spring wheat is if it’s dry, it can be planted in cooler soils than some other crops.
Beck says some spring wheat planting could get underway the middle of next week in central and southern South Dakota. However, in northern counties some areas still have frost in the ground.
