Crop Predictions ?

B

BirddogGSP

Active member
Anybody have any predictions for crop harvest for the SD Opener? After 23 years of attending the opener it seems like one of the most critical factors in my hunting success is crop harvest. For the most part we hunt the publics. It seems when the crop harvest is well under way the hunting is great when the crop aren't its a challenge. Lets hope its not a repeat of a couple years ago when the crops didnt come out until Dec.
Let the countdown begin! Time for some fun with family, friends, and some great dog work.
 
We had a pretty good freeze a couple of nights ago. So that might speed things up. The beans will be gone and I suspect some of the corn will be harvested. There is some corn that is not fully mature so that will be around for a while waiting for that to dry down. This is in north central S.D.
 
east central, soybeans will be out and depending upon how dry it stays, corn could be in full harvest by the 15th. its really dry out there and temps in the 60's and 70's for the next 10 days will push everything along. by halloween it could be pretty dark in the fields. i would have never predicted that in june, but august and september's draught along with temps in the 20's last week will really speed things up.
 
It is a pretty cool site especially for the guys like me traveling 11 hours it's always nice to know where things stand in relation to the crops. As the corn goes so does our over all bird numbers.......glad it helps
 
It's been a strange year for the crops. A very wet spring resulted in late planting so everyone thought the crops would mature late and there would be a late harvest. Then came June and July and we had some super hot and humid weather. More humid here than in Louisiana or the tropics. anyway, the crops grew rapidly and nearly caught up to the 5 year average. Now we have an early freeze and the corn and beans look nearly ready to harvest although they need to dry down some. As long as we don't get some real wet weather it appears we will have a fairly normal harvest. I would bet most crops will be out by the end of October. The 10 day forecast is warmer than normal temps and no precip.
 
it's a great tool to use. It's a weelky report that post every Monday at 3pm Central time. It's also cool to look back at previous years by month and week to see progress. I've used it the past 4 years to determine when to hunt. The guys in my party have a bit of flexibility and we've held off a week or two in the past just to hit better crop results. here's the main page.......http://www.nass.usda.gov/.........select a state and on the following page under South Dakota publications select "crop progress and condition"..........and away you go!!!!!!!
 
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