In 2024, Aberdeen’s DemKota beef processing plant bought cattle from 400 producers.

This year, they bought from 300.

“That wasn’t because we chose to,” CEO Adam Bode told the Sioux Falls Downtown Rotary Club on Monday.

It’s because the producers aren’t there any longer. Raising or feeding cattle is “a great business and an even better lifestyle,” said Bode, but it’s one fewer and fewer people — particularly young people — can afford to get into. He said the average age of a South Dakota cattle producer is 63.

In South Dakota, the Governor’s Office of Economic Development facilitates loans to beginning farmers and ranchers, but only for a handful of people each year. Since 2019 , the office’s board approved a total of $4.6 million in bonds for 13 applicants statewide, an average of a

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