A pheasant stands along a South Dakota fence line in 2023. (Unmodified photo courtesy of USDA-NRCS South Dakota)
South Dakota’s farms, ranches, rural communities and wildlife advocates are living with uncertainty, and congressional delay on a full farm bill is inexcusable.
Agriculture is the backbone of this state. So are the grasslands, wetlands and pheasant fields that define it. When Washington stalls, it doesn’t just create headlines — it destabilizes operations, weakens conservation and undercuts rural economies.
On Tuesday, the U.S. House Agriculture Committee begins marking up a new farm bill. The process is long overdue. Producers are already navigating drought, volatile markets, rising input costs and thin margins. They should not also have to navigate congressional gridlock.
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South Dakota’s lone House member, Republican Rep. Dusty Johnson, is on the committee and says passing a full farm bill is a priority. His seat at the table gives the state influence — and responsibility — to deliver legislation that strengthens the farm safety net while maintaining robust conservation programs.
Johnson has emphasized stronger crop insurance, improved risk management, rural development and conservation. As chair of the subcommittee overseeing rural development, he says the bill would reinvest in rural communities and cut red tape that slows water, broadband and infrastructure projects.
He also points to a demographic challenge: more than half of South Dakota producers are over 55, according to the 2022 Census of Agriculture.
“Land and equipment costs have risen dramatically in recent years,” Johnson said, “so it is harder for beginning and young producers to build an operation. This farm bill increases lending limits and adds flexibility into these programs, making it easier for the next generation to help feed the world.”
But the farm bill is more than a farm subsidy package. As conservation groups including the National Wildlife Federation, Ducks Unlimited and Pheasants Forever often note, it is the nation’s most important conservation law. It funds wetland protection, grassland stewardship and habitat programs that keep working lands productive and resilient.
South Dakota sits in the Prairie Pothole Region, one of the most critical waterfowl breeding areas in the world. These shallow wetlands filter water, recharge aquifers and reduce flooding. They protect farms and communities alike.
And we are losing them.
South Dakota once had about 2.7 million acres of wetlands. Today, roughly 1.9 million remain — a loss nearing 30%. Grasslands continue to be plowed. Pollinators decline. Habitat fragments.
Conservation Reserve Program enrollment has also dropped sharply from its national peak of nearly 37 million acres in the mid-2000s to the high-20-million-acre range today. In South Dakota, that means fewer grass buffers, fewer nesting acres and fewer protected fields across pheasant country.
The connection is simple. When CRP acres fall, nesting cover shrinks. When nesting cover shrinks, pheasant populations decline. Hunters see it. Rural businesses feel it. Communities across the state depend on fall hunting seasons, and those seasons depend on habitat.
CRP grasslands reduce erosion, improve soil health, store carbon and keep nutrients out of streams and lakes. When acres leave the program, wildlife suffers, and so does water quality.
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Conservation groups warn that without strong funding in the farm bill, habitat losses will accelerate and bird numbers will fall. Johnson agrees that CRP remains a key conservation tool and argues Congress increasingly understands the importance of working-lands conservation — helping farmers steward land without taking it out of production.
Johnson agrees with that outlook and said CRP “will always be a huge tool in the conservation toolbox, and this Congress is doing a much better job understanding the importance of working lands conservation. Working with farmers and ranchers so they can manage their land with conservation in mind, without taking land out of production, is a win-win.”
This is not a partisan issue. It is a South Dakota issue.
Farm groups, conservation organizations and rural communities agree on the basics: Finish the job. Pass a full farm bill. Strengthen the safety net. Fully fund voluntary conservation programs. Give producers certainty, and protect the wetlands and grasslands that sustain our hunting heritage and rural economy.
The longer Congress waits, the more uncertainty grows — and the more habitat disappears. South Dakota cannot afford either.
