SD’s 2010 Crop Year in Review
It’s often said that there is no such thing as normal in SD, just an average of the extremes. Well, 2010 certainly didn’t test that theory. We started out bizarrely, and it just got more entertaining from there. Below are the top 10 things that come to mind about the 2010 SD crop year;
1) North/Central SD harvested more bushels of corn in June of 2010 than they did from 2002 through 2006 COMBINED. The big rains during 2009 created titanium corn stalks with Kevlar ear shanks that just held on with help from the BT trait until the combine was ready. Those fields were too wet to describe, after fall rains created a bog-hole of a swamp in every acre, if not an all-out lake. Somehow the yields off of those fields were nothing short of fantastic thankfully. The sunflowers growing in these fields in 2010 also enjoyed the extra moisture from the tassle-deep snow-catch.
2) The May 12 blizzard that shut down I-90 at Wall, SD was just plain wrong. After a record warm April, the Winter Wheat was ahead of normal, and the cold snap in May banged some of it up more than folks realized in certain areas. Many growers threw the groceries at their wheat, hoping for a repeat of the triple digit yields from the year before. Those monster yields did happen in some places along the Missouri River, but most areas were disappointed with yields in the 60 bushel range. Mellette, Todd, Shannon, and Bennett counties in South/Southwestern SD seemed most effected by the May temperature plunge.
For the most part, the early planted winter wheat did much batter. All but the earliest planted Spring Wheat was a big disappointment for most.
3) For the 2nd year in a row, the folks in western SD had FAR more rain than people in the Sioux Falls area received during May. In fact, flooding was a chronic problem west of the river all spring long, while the I-29 corridor didn’t start looking for an Ark until “Monsoon-June” hit with a vengeance.
It was next to impossible to get corn planted on time in Western SD, and I don’t know of a single soybean field planted timely west of the 100th meridian.
As it turns out, 2010 was yet another year since I lost count of when that the corn planted in the 3rd week of May outran any other planting date. Meanwhile soybeans planted after May 20 were penalized sharply at the scales, with more farmers vowing to plant them earlier next year at all costs.
4) April was a scary-dry month, and thank goodness for it. The only reason we got done what we did is due to no rain that month after the drenching fall and deep snow all winter.
5) The third week of May was a god-send. It was our one break west of Hwy 281 to get crops in the ground after twiddling our collective thumbs. The boys in the east were just finishing up as we battled mud. Don’t know how long before I see that one again, but I’m definitely not holding my breath…
6) I’m pretty sure it rained every day across the entire state the first three weeks in June. No light sprinkles either. I’m talking daily down-pours.
7) About four counties in North Central SD made the Big Guy upstairs mad the 3rd week of June, cuz he didn’t send another drop of rain their way until Sept. I’m utterly astonished, because that area is pulling off monster fall crops! 130 bu corn and 35 bu beans are common in Walworth/Potter counties, and for the life of me I don’t know how. Obviously management played a massive role in these magic yields, as did soil type, afterall they didn’t look pretty in the lighter soil types.
8) East-Central SD lacked something very important in our soil this year, and we crucified yields due to it. In many cases, this was the biggest disaster since 1988 due to this deficiency;
My soils professor at SDSU taught us the perfect soil has four things; 4% Organic Matter, 46% mineral, 25% water, and 25% air. Well, eastern SD fell deficient the “air” portion. Bigtime. The story of the year easily is the water-logged soils that hammered yields in the low-lying areas. Over 50% of the yields in many eastern counties are coming from 25% of the fields in the highest landscape position. Gravel knolls are out-yielding low-lands by a factor of 20 in the same field. In fact, nobody knew hilltops could yield so well.
Those deep, black, rich glacial till soils (that normally produce the most) literally smelled like manure all year. A perpetual muck, that couldn’t grow aerobic bacteria, sent every nitrate molecule into the sky, having been stripped of the Oxygen atom by some hungry anaerobe.
Roots refused to grow where they couldn’t breathe, and the poor corn in the bottom ground barely set ears. In fact, much of it got knee high twice; once on the way up, and once on the way back down.
9) Epic heat pushed the crops everywhere in the State along much faster than they are used to. The upside of the warmth is of course dry corn which is a joy to harvest, with the downside being lost mineralization in the soils that needed it most. Sure the organic matter mineralized in those eastern bottom-lands, but not as fast as a nitrogen-starving corn plant needed it. After all the rain-induced denitrification, the slow mineralization was simply too little, too late.
10) I will always remember 2010 as the year that I could look outside in the AM after a one-inch rain fell during the night and not tell whether or not it had even rained. It was THAT wet. Of course some of the bigger rains were noticed. Roads, damns, ditches, all underwater. Sanborn County went from pothole country, to lake country, and finally to island country. For awhile there I was afraid we would become ocean country.
Well, that was the growing season as I remember it. Currently we remain in the nicest Indian Summer I ever saw. Every day more perfect than the last. After last October’s horrific daily drizzle, the sight of frogs still playing under a blue sky full of happy birds makes me smile.
I hope you enjoy the rural renaissance underfoot as much as I do. With resource constraints plaguing commodity production across the globe, the tiny villages in SD we call home are booming for the first time since WWI. Some of us predicted this five years ago when resource constraints began nipping at the heels of the old Starbucks Economy, but for some reason these jokers below are still trying to understand what is behind this colossal human migration -
