After a healthy recovery in 2019, South Dakota honey production dropped 23% in 2020. According to the USA National Agricultural Statistics Service, South Dakota produced 14,945,000 pounds of honey last year, down from 19,400,000 pounds in 2019. The price per pound in South Dakota rose from $1.56 to $1.60 (the second lowest price in the nation, notably below the national average honey price of $2.03 per pound), but the value of honey production statewide dropped 21%, from $30,326,000 to $23,912,000.
The number of honey-producing bee colonies in South Dakota dropped 9% from 270,000 to 245,000. The amount of honey produced per colony dropped 13%, from 70 pounds to 61. North Dakota saw a 5% decrease in colonies but a 20% increase in per-colony yield from 65 pounds to 78, a 14% increase on total honey production from 33,800,000 to 38,610,000, and a 28% increase in total value of production from $48,334,000 to $61,776,000. North Dakota is first in the nation for honey production; South Dakota remained second. Together the Dakotas produced 36% of the nation’s honey in 2020.
The retail price for honey increased 8.3% in 2020, from $4.82 to $5.22 per pound. Thus, the average $2.03 per pound for which honey growers were able to sell their raw product was 39 cents out of each dollar paid by consumers.
Our bee herd may be down 9%, but our dairy herd is up 10%. The USDA reports that South Dakota’s dairy herd increased from 129,000 head in February 2020 to 142,000 in February 2021. Each cow’s production was down 3.8% from last year, from 1,835 pounds per cow in February 2020 to 1,765 pounds per cow in February 2021 (but pause a moment: imagine pushing 1,800 pounds of anything through your body in one month… and consider that while cows just stand around and keep eating, the humble bee and its hive must fly 55,000 miles and visit 2,000,000 flowers to make a pound of honey). But with our increased udder count, South Dakota’s February milk production was up 6% from last year.
For all of 2020, South Dakota’s dairy herd grew 11%, our milk per cow dipped less than 1%, and our total milk production grew 12%. The number of licensed dairy operations in the state dropped by 15, from 195 to 180… which isn’t bad compared the loss of hundreds of dairies in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York.
Since 2003, the U.S. has lost more than half of its licensed dairy operations, now just shy of 32,000 dairy operations…..however….milk production increased by 2% over 2019. 233 billion pounds iof milk produced in 2020. I don’t see how new startups, even yooooge ones, can make money when milk is overproduced year after year.
Of course, I am not a math or economics major.
South Dakota must chase the honey – the ridiculous, anti-democratic trust fund industry.
“America’s ultra-wealthy have pulled off a brilliantly designed heist, with a string of South Dakota governors as accomplices. Nearly no one in South Dakota complains, because the harm falls on the national economy, federal taxpayers and places such as New York and California where the super-rich actually live.”
Among the easiest things in politics is buying a small state governor, senators, and local legislators. They come cheap. They are easily swayed by arguments for the well-healed, aspiring to grab their coattails. The South Dakota trust fund industry, the trust fund legislative, industrial complex – touts that it merely pays its own way. That is an incredibly low bar for likely the state’s most lucrative industry. Even Deadwood gaming and state-wide slots do more than merely ‘pay their own way.’
One legislator parrots the industry line, puffing about passing an annual minor adjustment to the 1997, SDCL 51A-6A. The act made South Dakota the nationwide leader at ripping of the US taxpayers, making the rich richer, and exacerbating the nation’s wealth gap. For that, the nation and South Dakota receive nearly nothing. Oh, the 105 SD trust companies pay salaries of $30 million to a mere 450 workers. They purchase $10 million in local supplies and services. They pay a mere $2.2 million in bank franchise taxes, $1.3 million in fees, and $443,000 to the banking division for ‘examination expenses’ — making them virtually “self-funded”. Be still my heart while they mask over a trillion dollars in merely inherited wealth for people who never set foot in South Dakota. South Dakota should tax those fund transfers for education, roads, and other services as it does with gaming, tourism, and agriculture.
“We all suffer high and hidden costs from this parallel legal system — paying more in taxes and getting less in government services. And by hyper-concentrating wealth, South Dakota locks away resources that could spark entrepreneurial innovation.”
The nation should level the field by taxing the wealth transmission, not the accumulation. The wealth tax proposed by Senator Elizabeth Warren, never worked where tried. Doing the same thing expecting a different result is futile. Taxing wealth transfers would force South Dakota and the johnny-come-lately wanna-be states to stop their rush to the bottom and their rush 19th Century England-ish plutocracy (government by the wealthy). Think about it – what has Paris Hilton done for the nation, for the economy — other than ride her grandfather’s coattails? What has Mitch McConnell done for Kentucky (48th in the nation) – voting 6 times to raise his salary and 15 times against raising the minimum wage? What have Thune and Rounds done for South Dakota – voting against the recovery stimulus, against the minimum wage – hint, they are not working for you.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/03/19/we-need-rein-billionaires-start-with-south-dakota/
Trusts are important, Mr. John. People need trusts. They might as well be based out of South Dakota, instead of some liberal, coastal state with natural disasters spelling imminent doom. You would be well suited to get a financial bunker here in South Dakota, along with a literal one. The covid bugs might be getting whipped into shape, but when SHTF you will want to have your money bunkered in and yourself hunkered in.
Most likely, Grudz and the like are feasting today on gravy-taters thanks to those liberal coastal states that just send him more Covid money to squirrel away!
well…we need to grow more alfalfa and less corn….raise more bees…its one way to secure the future.
Oh come on Grudz, its easy to do what SD did. For instance, Florida has let in con artists for decades who need to buy yuge properties that can’t be taken away in a lawsuit. Why do you think Trump transfered his residence from New York where he’s about to be exposed to sun shiney Florida? To keep his red tan? Of course Janklow made the entire nation into debtors but thats another story for another time. It worked for Sioux Falls at least.
I had my morning gravy taters, thank you very much, Mr. jake, along with sausages, bacon, and a brace of chicken eggs. It is possible the potatoes came from Idaho, which is not on the coast as I am sure you know. They were, indeed, slathered in gravy and very tasty. All who work hard to earn a living may partake in a comfortable breakfast.
Mr. Anderson, there is nobody forcing people to apply for cards from Mr. T. Denny or anybody else. grudznick’s advice to all is to not subscribe to those kind of cards, work harder, save up some money and then buy the things you want. Or visit your local town banker. They are usually swell fellows and will do you a more solid favor than T. Denny.
It is a bit like the lotteries, is it not? It is a voluntary taxing of onesownself when you play the games or subscribe to the cards. Sometimes people are just not their own best friends.
Grudz if it wasn’t for the Florida lotteries the school system would be SOoL, I buy the lotto every time I buy groceries, have to keep the schools going you know, by the way its up to 27 million plus. You know gambling is taking over everywhere, just watched CBS Sunday morning and Colorado has tied cleaning up their rivers to sports betting, believe it or not. The giant TV in the sports bar had all kinds of people cheering, it is March Madness time. Now if you had put a 20 on Oral Roberts vs. Ohio State you’d love it but even I know this is all crazy. I joined an online company just so I could watch tennis because it is so hard to watch, but since I didn’t gamble they kind of threw me out, but I’ll still bet Nadal wins the French to go to 21 majors, any takers?
You keep on believing that gambling is the way to riches, Mr. Anderson. grudznick will encourage people to keep their money in their pockets and work harder to earn more. And to make sure the schools get your money, just give it straight to them, that way there’s no chance you might accidentally “win” and get that dopamine rush that taints your brain with more conditioning to buy more tickets, sending you down the spiraling hole of addiction.
Louis Brandeis said, “We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”
After all the discussion of a new Civics that teaches American exceptionalism, maybe what is really needed is a focus on financial literacy that warns of the trapping of credit cards and lotteries.
This nation has suffered from government directed wealth distribution. While the Right/MAGA/GOP folks warn of Robin Hood, they play the Sheriff of Nottingham with corporate, trust, capital gains, estate, and investment exclusions all aimed to concentrate wealth at the top and PREVENT the trickle down promised all those times over.
well….wealth management is a huge industry, it employs many people, though its largely just a stirring of the pot. Don’t let Mr. Grudznick disturb you. He is the Charles Barkley of South Dakota political commentary.
F*cking dicey smart fons; cut/paste, witty response to John, spell check. Poof. Text disappears and can’t be recessitated. Second f*cking attempt, naming David Lust and Mike Rounds, wanna be billionaires while doing the public’s business. Wapo seems to have nailed it too.
2020 election issues were only economic inequality which damages everything that is wrong in the nation; and the extreme climate emergency. Thx John for the comment.
Oh, “…nobody forcing people to apply for cards from Mr. T.” Sure; little enabler grdz-bullsheit as ever. Nobody forced Ravnsborg to stop at the 24 hr convenience store either for a bottle for the road (if something addictive like that caused the life/death distraction that Friday night).
Keeping it from the people. SDGOP. Sheriff of Nottingham. Charles Barkley. Brilliant…
While virtually no magats voted fort the recently passed/signed stimulus bill, virtually every magat voted to repeal estate tax which only affects the super wealthy. Priorities, people.
There is more to the wealthy hiding income from the taxman than you know.
https://www.rawstory.com/this-is-tax-evasion-richest-1-of-us-households-dont-report-21-of-their-income-analysis-finds/
Staying slightly off topic….. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/03/19/we-need-rein-billionaires-start-with-south-dakota/
South Dakota outpaces tax haven Switzerland and Cayman Islands helping wealthy shelter their money for generations of inequality.
Mike, just to wordsmith you, NO Republicans – MAGA or otherwise – voted for the stimulus bill. None.
Bloomberg! reports the wealthy under report income by 21%. Yet, recall the IRS more heavily audits folks claiming the child tax credit.
The system is rigged.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-22/tax-evasion-richest-1-of-americans-hide-20-of-their-income-from-the-irs?srnd=premium
Our nation needs to heavily tax wealth transfers – before the US becomes Britain and circles the drain. Bust the trusts.