South Dakota state legislators will finish off their 2021 session on March 29 when they return for their final day of deliberations. The main run wrapped up last week and Loren Pankratz, lobbyist for the South Dakota pork and soybean groups says overall it was a good session for agriculture. He says because of extra money that was available they were able to fund some needed projects.

He says a major project that received funding was the Ag Bio Processing Facility at SDSU as well as new money to rebuild SDSU’s dairy facilities and funding for conservation districts.

Pankratz says there will be benefits for farmers and ranchers with the combining of the Agriculture Department with Environment and Natural Resources.

Pankratz says he didn’t see any detrimental pieces of legislation for agriculture this session that had to be turned back or defeated.