Cold, Wet Weather Keeping Farmers Out of Fields

Posted on Tuesday, April 15, 2008

There was a minimum of field work in South Dakota last week because of widespread precipitation,including 10 inches of snow in some areas. The weekly crop report says some areas in eastern South Dakota have water standing in fields. Ninety percent of the state now reports adequate or surplus topsoil moisture, up 7 percentage points in the past week. Eighty percent of the state reports enough subsoil moisture. Soil temperatures held steady or decreased because of the snow last week, with many areas reporting soil temperatures still in the 30s. The Agriculture Statistics Service said the seeding of barley, oats and spring wheat is well behind the 5-year average because of the cool, wet weather.

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