Betting the Farm: Examining South Dakota Farmers\u27 Reliance on Corn and Soybeans

South Dakota farms produce substantially more corn and soybeans than other crops. This ongoing research seeks to identify whether an alternative crop mix would reduce South Dakota farmers\u27 exposure to risk. Specifically, whether one or more alternative crop mixes would increase average revenue and decrease the standard deviation of revenue over the 69 years studied. The project will attempt to predict state-wide agricultural revenue in both the fixed price case and allowing price to float to account for the changing crop supply. This price will then be used to predict revenue across the 69 years. In addition, the research will qualitatively examine those crop mixes which appear to increase average revenue and decrease the standard deviation of revenue to determine whether they are a feasible alternative to South Dakota\u27s current crop mix