South Dakota

According to the American Lamb Board checkoff, retail sales of all lamb in the U.S. have increased. Retail sales between April 20th and July 12th increased 8.6% year over year. That comes out to 16.3 million pound of lamb sold, valued at $137 ...

Late last week, South Dakota Representative Dusty Johnson introduced the Price Reform in Cattle Economics Act. Johnson, a House Ag Committee member, said the bill would increase transparency in the cattle market, as well as improve risk management for producers and support new and existing meat processors ...

We're getting ready to close the books on the 2020 spring wheat harvest. As USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey took a final look at this year's season, he noted 96% of the crop has been harvested, which is on-par with the five-year average, and well ahead of last year's 84% ...

Senate Ag Committee Chair Pat Roberts took part in a discussion on the Senate floor this week about the replenishment of the Commodity Credit Corporation. The Kansas Republican pointed out that failure to do so would not only hurt already-struggling farmers, ranchers, and growers, it would jeopardize the implementation of the 2018 Farm Bill programs ...

Spring wheat harvest is moving quickly across the country, making up for some earlier crop developmental delays. "We're seeing the spring wheat harvest reaching the 49% mark by August 23rd," noted USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey. "That he behind the five-year average of 62%, but well ahead of last year's 32% ...

New legislation introduced in the House of Representatives would allow state-inspected meat sales across state lines through e-commerce. The bill introduced last week by South Dakota Republican Dusty Johnson and Texas Democrat Henry Cuellar, would allow small producers and processors more options to directly market to consumers ...

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy announced he’s forming a Republican “China Task Force,” citing Chinese ownership of Smithfield Foods as part of the reason behind the move. The Hagstrom Report said McCarthy found it interesting that “China owns a processing plant in South Dakota” and wondered if that could be a challenge for the U.S. food supply. McCarthy ad ...

Smithfield Foods announced late last week it’s closing plants in Wisconsin and Missouri because of the coronavirus pandemic. The plant in Wisconsin will be closed for two weeks while the Missouri facility is closed indefinitely. According to the associated Press report the Missouri plant gets its raw materials from the plant in Sioux Falls, SD, which is also closed. ...

NASS will once again have follow-up work to do on the 2019 harvest. NASS will be contacting survey respondents in Michigan, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, who had previously reported unharvested corn and/or soybean acres. If the newly collected data make any changes necessary, NASS will update the January 10th estimates in the May 12th Crop Production Report ...

Last week, senators John Thune of South Dakota and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan introduced the Cover Crop Flexibility Act of 2020. The legislation would permanently remove the prohibition on harvesting or grazing cover crops on prevented plant acres before November 1st ...