Opportunities & Challenges

Kyle Holt - CEO, SD Ag Foundation

If you’re from South Dakota, agriculture has always had a unique impact on your life. Maybe you grew up on a family farm, just as I did, and understood that family vacations would be planned around planting season and harvest. Maybe it meant that Saturday was only a day off if it was raining. Even if you didn’t grow up directly involved with agriculture, you knew that slow moving farm equipment on the highway would regularly test your parents’ patience when they were already running late.  That’s part of living in our wonderful state. While we have grown used to those consistencies, agriculture is changing, right before our very eyes.

Advancements in technology have made agriculture look much different than what previous generations could have imagined. Autosteer and the use of drones are now commonplace on the farm. It’s just as important for an operator to be part tech support as it is to be part mechanic. These advancements have led to great opportunities in agriculture for the next generation. Families are finding ways to diversify their operations to ensure opportunities for one child, or possibly two or three, to be supported by the family farm or ranch. Much like advancements in technology, the trend of seeing operations transition from one generation to the next isn’t going to slow down in the coming years.  Over the next decade, a significant number of farms and ranches, along with billions of dollars in assets, will change hands.

Although change brings new opportunities, it also brings new challenges. These challenges mean growing pains for farms and ranches. The next generation will be tasked with taking advantage of new opportunities while navigating through a very different world than the one their parents and grandparents operated in. As the ag community’s trusted philanthropic partner in our state, the South Dakota Ag Foundation is committed to changing and evolving right along with the industry. Since forming in 2015, we’ve awarded over 100 grants totaling more than $165,000. With more than $3 million in endowed funds, we are looking to build on our momentum and expand our impact.

As agriculture continues to evolve in our state, so will the South Dakota Ag Foundation through renewed partnerships and creative initiatives.  We are excited to find new ways to make a difference, helping to preserve the way of life we all know and love, while ensuring success for generations to come.

Guest User