(Continued from page 22)

• The National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Friday that the 41.9 million planted acres are down 2 percent from last year. Seeding for the 2014 winter wheat crop began in August.
• Plantings of hard red winter wheat, used to make bread, were estimated to be up 2 percent at 30.1 million acres.
• Significantly more hard red wheat acres were seeded in Colorado, Montana and North Dakota. Those helped offset large acreage decreases in Kansas, Oklahoma and South Dakota.
• Utah had a record low acreage, while North Dakota seeded a record high number of wheat acres.
• Kansas planted 8.8 million acres of winter wheat, down 7 percent from a year ago.
•

• RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) -- A fund set up to help South Dakota ranchers in the wake of an early October blizzard that killed thousands of farm animals has surpassed $4 million.
• The South Dakota Rancher Relief Fund has received money from more than 5,000 donors in all 50 states. It recently got a boost of more than half a million dollars when Sturgis-based First Interstate Bank bought 33 calves that were then sold at auction barns in South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska and Texas.
• "We had no idea we could get this much support from the communities," First Interstate President Shawn Rost told the Rapid City Journal. "The sale barns, all the local ranchers, the businesses all across the region stepped up to support this cause, and we're just amazed. Talk about triumph from tragedy."
• The Oct. 10 storm that hit with surprising intensity brought first rain and then up to 4 feet of snow to western South Dakota, killing nearly 22,000 cattle, 1,400 sheep, 300 horses and 40 bison.
• The relief fund now totals more than $4.2 million and is still accepting donations. South Dakota Stockgrowers Association Executive Director Silvia Christen said she never dreamed the fund would raise so much money.
• "On one hand it is tough to see that there are so many families that were impacted and are hurting. But on the other hand, I'm grateful to know we have this fund available so that we can make a difference for some of those families," she said.

(Continued on page 24)