TRI-STATE NEIGHBOR: Side dressing, fungicide help care for growing crop

“Everything is getting really slow,” Rix said. “There isn’t a lot of movement around.”

Rix will use the down time to take a family vacation to Washington, D.C. The trip is part business. Rix will be taking part in Corn Congress, talking to delegates as a board member of the South Dakota Corn Utilization Council. He is on the risk management and the transportation action teams.

“This is the last session we have to really talk about the things we want to push for in the new farm bill,” Rix said.

Updating the base acres for corn is an important issue for South Dakota, he said. When base acres were first created in the farm bill 20 years ago, corn wasn’t as prevalent in northern South Dakota as it is today. Much of those acres were wheat or pasture and didn’t have a history of planted corn acres to consider for federal safety net coverage and payment programs.