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children following an outbreak at a school.
• The South Dakota Department of Health is urging parents to immunize their kids. The department provides free vaccines for children.
• Whooping cough is also known as pertussis. Colleen Winter with the Department of Health says it causes uncontrollable coughing, rib fractures, pneumonia, loss of consciousness and can ultimately lead to death.
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South Dakota corn crop estimate lowered slightly
• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- The federal Agriculture Department has slightly lowered its corn production forecast for South Dakota.
• Officials forecast the crop at just under 503 million bushels, down 1 percent from September and down 23 percent from last year.
• South Dakota's soybean crop is now pegged at about 130 million bushels, up 4 percent from last month's estimate but down 14 percent from a year ago.
• Sunflower production in the state is expected to be up 2 percent from 2011, but the sorghum crop is forecast to be down 25 percent. Alfalfa hay is down 46 percent and other hay down 35 percent, as drought conditions worsen in the state.
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US corn estimate lowered to reflect harvest yields
DAVID PITT,Associated Press
• DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday slightly lowered its projection for the nation's corn crop for a fourth straight month, reflecting worse-than-expected news about the actual impact of this year's withering drought from the farmers busy harvesting their fields.
• The USDA estimates that farmers will harvest 10.71 billion bushels of corn this year, which would be the smallest amount since 2006. Last month's estimate was 10.73 billion bushels.
• Crop estimates change as fields are harvested and farmers get a better sense of how the weather affected yields. The U.S. has been experiencing one of its worst droughts in decades, and conditions have been particularly harsh in many of the key Midwest and Plains farming states.
• Farmers have harvested 69 percent of the nation's corn already this year, which is well ahead of the 28 percent that would be harvested by this time in a typical year.
• The average yield is about 122 bushels per acre, which is down from last (Continued on page 20)
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