South Dakota’s spring wheat harvest is wrapping up at 97-percent complete and it’s been a tough year for growers. Production is down 36-percent from last year at only around 30 million bushels. South Dakota Wheat Commission Executive Director Reid Christopherson says its largely due to drought in central and northern portions of the state. He says farmers in the eastern South Dakota saw much higher yields, but it didn’t make up for the losses in the rest of the state.

He says the yield average for the state was 32 bushels per acre, also down 13 bushels from 2016 and yields ranged from zero to 50 bushels per acre. Christopherson says the good news is protein levels were around 12-percent.

Christopherson says although 2017 was a tough year, he encourages growers to keep wheat in their rotational plans for next year.

Christopherson expects winter wheat planting to get started later next week.