Extreme drought, low snowpack and delayed irrigation are forcing western Nebraska farmers to leave acres unplanted this spring. One Scotts Bluff County grower says he will plant only half his usual corn and pinto bean acres this year.
James Maser, who farms near Scottsbluff, said the area has seen only about an inch of measurable moisture since last June. He called the situation “kind of like a Dustbowl 2.0.”
Drought, low snowpack squeeze western Nebraska farms
Scotts Bluff County is seeing exceptional to extreme drought, and the National Integrated Drought Information System says the county is experiencing its second- driest year to date in 132 years. Maser said the region is “16 to 20 inches behind,” adding, “We get 15 inches of annual rainfall. So, we’re looking at a year and a half or we’re missing a year and a half of rain.”
That dry stretch is being compounded by low snowpack in the Wyoming and Colorado mountains, which feed the North Platte River system and the irrigation network in western Nebraska. The Farmers Irrigation District said in a Facebook post, Upper Platte snowpack is at 37% of normal.
Fields are blowing before planting even starts
Maser said wind has been stripping and reshaping fields all spring, leaving some ground too dry and other parts too cloddy to plant.
“I don’t know how deep you can go here. You know, the difference one inch [of rain] makes around here is we have very good water holding capacity in our soils for what it is, but you have got to have some [rain],” he said.
He said some fields received almost an inch of sprinkler water but still showed dust blowing across the surface. In other spots, soil on the windward side was missing as much as 6 inches, and hard winds in January and February left the ground roughened and vulnerable to erosion.
Maser said the farm had to pre-irrigate ground for the first time in his 29 years of farming to break up clods and make the soil plantable.
“We’ve never, in the history that I’ve been farming, we’ve never turned our pivots on before June 20th,” said Maser. “We’ve never had to, so this is new territory.”
July 1 irrigation start leaves little time
Farmers in the area will not be allowed to turn irrigation on until July 1 this year, which is later than normal, and they will have only 25 days to apply water. Maser said that is not enough time to make a crop.
“I would say bare minimum for this year you need 60 [inches of water] to even raise a crop and 80 [inches of water] is probably a normal year,” he said. “Twenty-five days starting in July when it’s 95 degrees isn’t going to do us any good.”
He said the real concern is whether crops can even emerge before irrigation begins. “If we had an inch, you could get your corn out of ground, it’ll grow 30 days. Turn on the water, maybe be able to raise something if you get a late fall rain. That’s a lot of wishing and spending a lot money I do not have,” said Maser. “I’m not that optimistic and we’re not gonna put the money out there if I don’t see a return coming.”
Prevent plant may be the only option
Maser said prevent plant insurance may be the only safety net for some growers this year. “Without it, there is no hope for anybody around here,” he said. “There’s nothing we can plant, nothing we can get growing.”
Crop insurance agent Ben Rand with The Home Agency said he has never seen conditions like this. He’s been an agent since 2014. Rand says he’s never handled a prevent plant claim on irrigated acres until this year. Now, he is seeing claims on surface-water acres and wells pulling air in mid-May.
“I would say it was the 13th or 14th, we got our first curtailment letter on well water. So now the wells are being affected. May 15th, we had our first report of a well pulling air. That is something we don’t see typically until July or August, if it happens. Here we are, crops not even planted and guys are trying to pre-water to put it in the ground and wells are pulling air.”
“New territory” for farmers and their input suppliers
Maser said the drought is already rippling beyond the farm. With fewer acres planted, there are fewer sales of seed, chemicals and other inputs.
“I know we’re a little micro area in the corn planting world, but when you see thousands of acres of corn seed get returned, hundreds of thousands of acres of chemicals not being purchased, it makes people scratch their head. They’re now [asking] what’s going on out there? It’s kind of opened their eyes.”
He said many farmers in the area are talking by phone, comparing notes and trying to decide what, if anything, is worth planting.
“It’s just everything we do is completely new territory. This is my 29th year, and we’re learning every day. Every day is different, and we think we have a plan, and then the next day the plan changes,” Maser said.
Unless it rains, right now he only expects to plant 50% of his acres this year.
