Focus Group

The Customer Focus Group includes representatives from a broad range of agricultural interests in South Dakota.  The focus group provides input and support to the ARS Laboratory in Brookings, the only USDA Agricultural Research Service laboratory in our State. 

 

The ARS innovative research projects highlight how no-tillage, plant-incorporated protectants, cover crops, crop rotations, and other management options influence resource use efficiency, pest management, long-term productivity, economic viability, and environmental quality.  Their current research program addresses critical aspects of crop production in the region:

 

• Better soil health to sustain food production, reduce fertilizer needs, promote carbon sequestration, and protect the environment.  Strategies to build soil health must be developed that fit the localized challenges faced by South Dakota growers.  

• Resilient cropping systems that can perform well under drought and other stresses. Regionally relevant solutions are especially needed to prevent crop loss where the climate is highly variable, as in South Dakota.

• Protection and promotion of beneficial insects, including pollinators and natural enemies of pests. South Dakota provides critical habitat for the nation’s pollinators that also benefit the production of South Dakota crops.

• Cropping systems that incorporate oats to improve the production, grain quality, and profitability of one of the few grains that the US mostly imports but is suited to production in South Dakota.