South Dakota’s crop ratings dropped again this week for both corn and soybeans and are running well below last year when the state had record crops. Corn rated only 55-percent good to excellent, which is down 2-percent from last week and soybeans were at 57-percent good to excellent, down 3-percent from a week ago. Monsanto Agronomist Keith Mockler says the ratings are very reflective of the crop he’s seeing in the field.

He says the corn crop in South Dakota will be off of last year’s record 159 bushel per acre yield. He says with the crop getting planted late there was some tip back and heat damage during pollination.

Mockler says the statewide soybean yield will also be down from the 46 bushels per acre record set in 2015.

He says the soybean crop generally looks better than corn and has only seen light insect pressure, so it still has pretty good potential depending on weather the rest of August.