Corn is vital to our diet. You will find refined corn products used in nearly 4,000 food items today. Corn syrups provide the major source of sweeteners in food. In addition, corn has hundreds of industrial uses, from plastics to alcohol additives in motor fuel. In South Dakota corn is grown primarily east of the Missouri River, with the most corn being grown in southeast South Dakota.
Corn is also our most frequently irrigated crop.
South Dakota-grown soybeans are processed for protein meal and oil. A 60-pound bushel of soybeans will yield 48 pounds of meal and 11 pounds of oil, with uses as diverse as animal feed, bakery products, shortening and printing ink. Short-season soybean varieties are grown here because they mature in climates with shorter nights, like the summer nights in South Dakota's northern latitudes. Soybeans are often planted in rotation with corn, and sometimes intercropped with a winter small grain. Farmers plant soybeans in the late spring , and begin harvesting in the early fall.