Agricultural News
Ron Hays Visits with Ag Secretary Kim Vanneman on the State of South Dakota's Ag Industry
Tue, 25 Jun 2019 12:22:48 CDT
This week, Oklahoma Secretary of Agriculture Blayne Arthur is hosting a group of her peers from across the region, highlighting some of the bright spots of Oklahoma's ag industry. Among those who have made the trek to our state is South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture Kim Vanneman. Before her appointment to her current post, Vannerman served six years in South Dakota's Legislature as a State Representative. She spent all six of those years on the House Agriculture Committee, chairing it the last two years of that term. She spoke with Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays during her visit to Oklahoma this week, to share how her constituents in the ag industry of South Dakota are faring in the current environment. You can listen to their complete conversation by clicking or tapping the LISTEN BAR below at the bottom of the page.
"Well, I'll tell you it's tough everywhere," she said. "I actually drove down here to Oklahoma City for this meeting and could not believe how much water is standing in fields all the way from South Dakota down to Oklahoma City. It's definitely a historic time but I know the producers in Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska are just like producers in South Dakota - they're tough and they're resilient and they'll figure out ways to get through this tough cycle."
With South Dakota's legislative session over with for the year, Vannerman says producers there have loosened their attention on policy priorities for the moment to refocus on simply getting by until their collective situation improves, hopefully sooner rather than later.
"I think everybody is just kind of hanging on and doing pretty good," she said. "We are grateful for moving that date from November 1 up to September 1 in being able to harvest those prevent plant crops. Everybody is just watching and looking for anything they can pick up to feed their livestock with and make this thing work."
Vanneman expects to see a lot of prevent plant acres in South Dakota this year, particularly in the eastern part of the state. This will be quite impactful on the state, she says, which relies on agriculture as its No. 1 industry supporting a $25.6 billion economic impact. She is hopeful the discussions that take place at the conference here in Oklahoma this week can generate some ideas in which she can return to South Dakota with to help farmers and ranchers there endure these challenging economic times.
"This is a great organization. You really can bounce some things off each other and then everybody doesn't have to reinvent the wheel," she said. "When we can share ideas and network and help each other out, it's a win-win for agriculture."
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