Drought this year has had a tough impact on South Dakota’s wheat crop. State Wheat Commission Executive Director Reid Christopherson says the impacts vary in the three different wheat regions in the state. He says a lot of the winter wheat in the South Central region was cut up for forage due to the drought.

He says the region containing most of the spring wheat was hit very hard by the drought.

Christopherson says the area of the state that may get a wheat crop is in the James River Valley.

Christopherson says his group is estimating farmers will get about half of their projected plantings for the hard red winter wheat while about half of the state’s spring wheat will be harvestable. He says it’s tough to estimate the bushels per acre average but a rough guess is around 30 bushels per acre.