South Dakota

Hot topics in agriculture discussed at South Dakota Governor’s Agricultural Summit

Published

2 years ago

June 15, 2024

Hot topics in agriculture discussed at South Dakota Governor’s Agricultural Summit

HURON, S.D. — The South Dakota Governor’s Agricultural Summit was held June 12 and 13 at the South Dakota State Fairgrounds in Huron, South Dakota. Industry and business leaders from across the state came together to discuss pressing issues within agriculture and shed some light on the state’s No. 1 industry.

“We do (agriculture) better than anybody else in the world and we do it better in South Dakota than anybody else in the country. We have, in South Dakota, more cows per people than any other state. So that’s a good thing to maintain,” South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem told the audience. “We like that about 95% of our South Dakota farms are still family owned and family operated, which is something I’m very proud of. And ag contributes over $32 billion to our economy in our state. About 30% of our economic output comes from the agriculture industry. When ag prospers, all of South Dakota prospers.”

Noem made an appearance to present the 2024 Governor’s Ag Ambassador award to this year’s recipient and longtime WNAX radio newsman, Jerry Oster, from Yankton, South Dakota. Noem also highlighted the importance of the work that goes into agricultural policy and how that affects the state’s farmers and ranchers.

“I’ve been working on policy for over 30 years and for me, it’s been a very different type of discussion than I think some people have when they look at ag policy. From my time first serving on committees and working on commissions in Washington, D.C., in my twenties, it’s been a national security issue,” Noem said. “One of the things I would hope that when we leave here, we remember the bigger goal is that it’s about how we feed the world and that’s important. We also have our policies, our programs, farm bills, in place to keep a safety net out there so that we have a lot of farmers and ranchers that can be successful and keep our No. 1 industry strong and safe.”

Beth Thompson, South Dakota’s state veterinarian and executive secretary of the South Dakota Animal Industry Board, presented an update on the highly pathogenic avian influenza, highlighting the impact on both poultry and dairy farms.

Beth Thompson, South Dakota’s state veterinarian and executive secretary of the South Dakota Animal Industry Board, updated attendees on the status of avian influenza in the state and how she predicts it will come to affect mammals, specifically the dairy industry.

Kennedy Tesch / Agweek

“In South Dakota, it’s been some months since we’ve seen highly pathogenic avian influenza in poultry, which is good because we just made it through the spring migratory season,” Thompson said. “Unfortunately, we are seeing avian influenza in dairy and we’ve had five sites here in the state of South Dakota. The animal industry board is working very closely with those dairy farmers and their veterinarians and hopefully, we’ll be at the end of the cases and move forward into the summer.”

Thompson said in mitigating spreading of the virus, biosecurity becomes king.

“Biosecurity is important because you want to keep whatever disease you may have on your site, on your site and not share it with your neighbors,” she said. “But you also want to keep anything off your site, too. So things like watching your visitors, making sure that nobody’s coming on your site unless you know about it, making sure that you’re watching your animals and working with your veterinarian very closely in case you see anything going on with your herd or flock.”

ForeignAgTradePanel — The discussion panel on foreign ag trade was led by Luke Lindberg, left, president and CEO of South Dakota Trade, with Cesar Garcia Arevalo, export sales and marketing manager for Advanced Sunflower, Dennis Harstad, general manager of Houdek and Jerry Schmitz, executive director of South Dakota Soybean.

The impacts of trade on South Dakota’s economy fueled a panel discussion led by Luke Lindberg, president and CEO of South Dakota Trade, with Jerry Schmitz, executive director of South Dakota Soybean, Dennis Harstad, general manager of Houdek, and Cesar Garcia Arevalo, export sales and marketing manager for Advanced Sunflower, participating.

“South Dakota is a prolific exporter of agricultural products. It’s $5 billion a year, roughly speaking, and our state only exports about $7 billion of goods and services. So agriculture is definitely our No. 1 export product. When we look at it in comparison to states all across the country, we’re actually the second highest per capita ag exporter,” Lindberg said. “A lot of those markets are overseas, 96% of the world’s population lives outside the United States, 4% live in the United States. So those are the markets we’re trying to position them for and find ways to sell their products.”

While businesses and organizations work to secure new markets for agricultural products, Elaine Kub, a market economist based in South Dakota, said that going into 2024 and 2025, the outlook is “looking a little less sunny this year than it has in some of the previous years.”

While Kub pointed out that the frustrating part about markets is that producers really have no control over the prices, she mentioned some steps they can take to get through this period of low markets.

“They have to make decisions for their own costs of production, and we can try and bring that down. Land prices are a big piece of that and interest rates, how much interest you’re paying for land or any other input is a big piece of that. Of course, we don’t have any control over interest rates, but we have control over spending patterns or borrowing patterns, she said. “Operational decisions like that can make a difference and also marketing — you can be kind of smart about marketing grain ahead of time and seasons of the year that tend to typically have higher seasonal prices than those harvest time prices.”

Despite the low commodity prices, Hunter Roberts, Secretary of the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, remains optimistic.

“We have plenty of challenges like every state, every industry, but agriculture itself is in a great spot,” Roberts said. “We need to continue to move forward. Commodity price wise, we’re down a little bit but moisture wise, we’re looking pretty good. We have a good crop in the ground, so I’m very optimistic about the future of agriculture. I think things are looking up.”

The Governor’s Ag Summit continued on June 13 for day two with presentations on the history of the South Dakota State Fair, touring a nearby Spink Hutterite colony and Kasemeister Creamery and a concert in the DEX building on the fairgrounds featuring country music artist, Thomas Rhett.

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South Dakota

SD Lottery Powerball, Lotto America winning numbers for March 2, 2026

Published

9 hours ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

The South Dakota Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.

Here’s a look at March 2, 2026, results for each game:

Winning Powerball numbers from March 2 drawing

02-17-18-38-62, Powerball: 20, Power Play: 2

Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Lotto America numbers from March 2 drawing

03-08-17-24-34, Star Ball: 06, ASB: 02

Check Lotto America payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from March 2 drawing

28-41-42-50-55, Bonus: 02

Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.

Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results

Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your prize

Prizes of $100 or less: Can be claimed at any South Dakota Lottery retailer.
Prizes of $101 or more: Must be claimed from the Lottery. By mail, send a claim form and a signed winning ticket to the Lottery at 711 E. Wells Avenue, Pierre, SD 57501.
Any jackpot-winning ticket for Dakota Cash or Lotto America, top prize-winning ticket for Lucky for Life, or for the second prizes for Powerball and Mega Millions must be presented in person at a Lottery office. A jackpot-winning Powerball or Mega Millions ticket must be presented in person at the Lottery office in Pierre.

When are the South Dakota Lottery drawings held?

Powerball: 9:59 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
Mega Millions: 10 p.m. CT on Tuesday and Friday.
Lucky for Life: 9:38 p.m. CT daily.
Lotto America: 9:15 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
Dakota Cash: 9 p.m. CT on Wednesday and Saturday.
Millionaire for Life: 10:15 p.m. CT daily.

This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a South Dakota editor. You can send feedback using this form.

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South Dakota

How South Dakota officials have reacted to ‘massive’ US attack on Iran

Published

21 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

How South Dakota officials have reacted to ‘massive’ US attack on Iran

South Dakota’s Congressional leaders are praising President Donald Trump for his action of joining Israel for a missile-launched attack this weekend in Iran, with the intent to target and dismantle Iran’s nuclear capabilities and demand regime change.

“Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people,” Trump said Saturday, Feb. 28, calling the strikes, “a massive and ongoing operation.”

Trump has since faced scrutiny for a lack of clarity about the timeline and overall goals of the war, and acting without the direct approval of Congress, which has the power to officially declare war for the U.S. Lawmakers are also in heated debate about whether the Trump’s decision may violate the Constitution, with Democrats calling for a war powers resolution vote to stop the effort, according to multiple military outlets.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, was directly targeted, a Middle Eastern official told USA TODAY. Khamenei was killed in the attacks on Feb. 28, according to Israeli sources who told USA TODAY, CNN and Reuters. He was 86 and had led Iran since 1989.

Iran retaliated with drone and missile strikes, hitting American and Israeli targets, including a U.S. Naval base in Bahrain. Iran said its enemies would be “decisively defeated.”

At least four Americans and an estimated 200 other individuals have been killed, and an estimated 700 injured as of March 2.

President Trump said he expects more to come.

Here’s what South Dakota Congressional leaders, along with former South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who now sits at the helm of the Department of Homeland Security as secretary, have to say about what has been named by the administration as Operation Epic Fury.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune

“For years, Iran’s relentless nuclear ambitions, its expanded ballistic missile inventory and its unwavering support for terror groups in the region have posed a clear and unacceptable threat to U.S. servicemembers, citizens in the region, and many of our allies,” said Thune, a Republican, the morning of Feb. 28 in a comment from his office.

“Despite the dogged efforts of the president and his administration, the Iranian regime has refused the diplomatic off-ramps that would peacefully resolve these national security concerns. I commend President Trump for taking action to thwart these threats,” Thune said, thanking Secretary Rubio for providing updates on these issues throughout the week.

“I look forward to administration officials briefing all senators about these military operations,” he said. “I commend the bravery of the servicemembers carrying out these operations and pray for the safety of those in harm’s way.”

U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds

Rounds, a Republican, said Trump took “the right course of action” when handling the strike.

Rounds later congratulated the United States military and Trump on the death of the Iranian leader, stating the moment “offers a path for a more peaceful Middle East.”

U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson

Johnson, a Republican and the lone U.S. representative for South Dakota, stated the Iranian regime “is full of theocratic thugs and is the world’s largest state sponsor of terror.” He said Trump had given multiple opportunities to change direction.

“I’m praying for the safety of America’s servicemembers, and our allies involved in Operation Epic Fury,” Johnson stated on social media.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem

Noem, who left her governorship after she was appointed secretary at the beginning of Trump’s current term, took to social media as well, stating she was actively monitoring any potential threats against America.

“I am in direct coordination with our federal intelligence and law enforcement partners,” she said.

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South Dakota

SD Lottery Millionaire for Life winning numbers for March 1, 2026

Published

1 day ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

The South Dakota Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.

Here’s a look at March 1, 2026, results for each game:

Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from March 1 drawing

10-11-12-35-56, Bonus: 04

Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.

Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results

Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your prize

Prizes of $100 or less: Can be claimed at any South Dakota Lottery retailer.
Prizes of $101 or more: Must be claimed from the Lottery. By mail, send a claim form and a signed winning ticket to the Lottery at 711 E. Wells Avenue, Pierre, SD 57501.
Any jackpot-winning ticket for Dakota Cash or Lotto America, top prize-winning ticket for Lucky for Life, or for the second prizes for Powerball and Mega Millions must be presented in person at a Lottery office. A jackpot-winning Powerball or Mega Millions ticket must be presented in person at the Lottery office in Pierre.

When are the South Dakota Lottery drawings held?

Powerball: 9:59 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
Mega Millions: 10 p.m. CT on Tuesday and Friday.
Lucky for Life: 9:38 p.m. CT daily.
Lotto America: 9:15 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
Dakota Cash: 9 p.m. CT on Wednesday and Saturday.
Millionaire for Life: 10:15 p.m. CT daily.

This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a South Dakota editor. You can send feedback using this form.

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