The SDSU Extension Interactive Grain Report Tool provides a real-time and historical grain situation report for corn, soybeans, hard red spring wheat, and winter wheat. The tool gathers data on average state elevator cash bids, export cash bids, rail and barge costs, grain stock levels, rail cars loaded by state with grain, grain barge movements, and marketing year export inspections.
The Ag Land Soil Tables Tool allows users to view soil data and download data by county to further understand the soil rating system. It can help appraisers make baseline agricultural land assessments and determine if adjustments from baseline are needed.
South Dakota farmers can monitor South Dakota basis for corn, soybeans, spring wheat and hard red winter wheat in their region relative to export bids and historical basis ranges using the SDSU Extension Grain Basis Tool.
South Dakota producers can use the SDSU Extension Net Income Tool to monitor their expected net income per acre given their location, commodity of interest, and changes to market prices. The tool gathers the most-recent end-of-day market prices to determine the latest expected net income for wheat, corn, and soybeans in the different regions of the state.
Planting decisions for this spring are complicated given the recent spread of COVID-19. A very busy planting season is approaching quickly. Input suppliers and farmers will be met with a requirement to complete tasks timely to evade economic losses from delays.
The Ag Land Highest and Best Use (HBU) study was funded by a special appropriation in the 2016 Legislative Session (HB1007).
Conducted since the mid-1990s, the USDA Agricultural Management Resource Survey (ARMS) is a multi-phase, multi-level nationwide survey of agricultural producers that collects information on a large sample of farms and their characteristics.
A general trend in the last century has been for greater consolidation among Grain Merchants and Oilseed Millers and Processors. The U.S. Census Bureau tracks the number of firms and/or establishments and value of sales (market size) by industry sector every 5 years as a part of the Economic Census. In addition to the number of firms and sales, the Census Bureau publishes concentration ratios for each sector. One concentration ratio they publish is the amount of sales attributed to the four largest firms in that sector. The percentage of sales of the 4 largest firms is a measure that aids in identifying the type of market structure that exists.
The Cooperative structure represents a unique organization type that is governed/owned by the users of the services and products. South Dakota has many types of Cooperatives, some organizations are not readily recognized as Cooperatives however, like mutual insurance, credit unions, etc. More commonly, Cooperatives are associated with Farmer Cooperatives that are prevalent in South Dakota.