Farmers needed the rain, but not all at once.

Recent rains and flooding have forced many farmers in the eastern half of South Dakota to delay getting crops into the ground, and some are now well behind the typical planting schedule or have had to cut back the acreage they are able to plant.

News partner South Dakota News Watch reports that some farmers who suffer crop or revenue losses will have to lean heavily on crop insurance and federal relief funding to make it through the 2022 planting season.

The recent storms in the southeast and the excess moisture in thenortheast have backed producers into a corner in regard todeciding when, or even if, to plant a summer 2022 crop.

If theywait too long, the growing season will be cut back and producing a fall crop may become out of the question.

Farmers suffered a big setback on May 12 when a high-intensitystorm known as a derecho not only dropped excessive moisturebut damaged machinery needed to plant a good crop.

Scott VanderWal, a Volga farmer who is president of the SouthDakota Farm Bureau, said some farmers slotted planting inbetween wet weather, while others weren’t able to do so.

VanderWal said federal financial assurance and cover cropprograms will hopefully help farmers who suffer losses to keeptheir operations afloat during this very trying 2022 plantingseason.

Source - https://kelo.com