Dry Weather Stressing Crops, Cattle

     SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - A week of warm and dry weather has
helped the harvest of soybeans in South Dakota, but the weather is
also negatively affecting some parts of the state as farmers lose
crops to wildfires.
     The Agriculture Department says the dry, dusty conditions have
also caused cattle in some areas of South Dakota to show signs of
respiratory problems.
     Soil moisture conditions continue to drop with the lack of rain
and topsoil moisture is now mostly in the very short to short
range.
     Soybeans are 30 percent harvested, ahead of 22 percent last
year. Seventy-nine percent of corn is at the mature stage, with 8
percent harvested.