Agriculture

Dairy farmer Rodney Elliott stands in a small room where part of his $12 million robotic milking system is doing its job. The robotic system is located inside a huge new barn on Elliott’s farm northeast of Lake Norden and is one of only a handful of fully robotic milking operations in South Dakota. As the system functions flawlessly around […]

South Dakota dairy producers have undergone a rapid expansion over the past few years to meet the milk needs of the state’s growing cheesemaking industry, bringing a burst of economic prosperity to farm families and farming communities throughout the eastern half of the state. Milk production in South Dakota rose by 12% from December 2019 to December 2020, and farmers […]