Mother Nature has thrown about every challenge she can at producers in Nebraska this spring. State Ag Director Steve Wellman also farms south of Omaha and says they’ve faced some real adversity.
Steve Wellman, Nebraska Department of Agriculture Director says, “We’ve had all kinds of weather issues across the state. We can start with the wildfires in southwestern Nebraska over the panhandle. You know lack of rain, too much rain, hailstorm, wind, tornado. It’s been pretty rough in May and June so far.”
Plus, multiple storms have left a path of destruction, especially in central Nebraska, where Mark Jagels farms near Davenport. He says hundreds of irrigation units have been damaged, including on his operation. “I mean in our area probably in about a 40 mile radius I mean I would guess that there would be somewhere between 500 and 700 pivots, just a lot of storms. And maybe not full pivots but sidearms were tipped over.” Wellman says, “So hopefully they’re not damaged too much but that’s part of a key piece of production here in many parts of Nebraska is irrigation. Almost 9 million acres of crops are irrigated here in Nebraska.”
However, Jagels says some of those pivots may not get fully repaired in time for the prime irrigation season. He says, “The steel they can get to replace the swing arms and stuff but the electronics just in everything. The electronics are definitely the things that are slowing up rebuilds.”
Many farmers in that area were also hit by hail and early frost and are still in the process of replanting.
Jagels says, “We had to replant some soybeans after a frost there’s been numerous hailstorms, hail systems that have come through the state that have pretty much wiped things out and I mean I would say corn this size have gone down to nothing.”
Plus many counties have already been declared designated disaster areas due to drought, including in the southwest. Adam Heskett farms in southwest Nebraska around Culbertson. He says, “We’re pushing towards the drier side for sure. I’d say too in this spot we’ve probably had less than four inches of measurable precip since January 1 so that’s not normal. "
He says they usually catch most of their rain in June, so the dryland crops are running out of time.
He says, “Yield prospects in the area. So these are dryland acres if we don’t catch some rain in the next 30 days for our dryland corn and soybeans and grain sorghum, which will cover the majority of the dryland acres around here we’ll zero them out they won’t product.”
And even irrigated yields may be limited in that area due to water allocations. Heskett says, “They’ll have to stop pumping irrigation water when they hit their allocation which will be the issue and we could see some major yield impacts.”
So another year like 2021 where the state had record corn and soybean yields, may be out of reach.
Wellman says, “I would say we’ve lost the top end yield potential that’s for sure across many areas of the state yeah. There’s just been too many weather challenges. You know last year was a record yield for both corn and soybeans here in Nebraska and I can’t imagine that we’re going to reach that this year.”
Yet Wellman and other farmers are trying to stay optimistic, and they say the state as a whole could still see normal to above normal yields as long as weather for the rest of the season doesn’t turn back hot and dry.
Crop development is running behind normal in many areas of Nebraska, especially where farmers are replanting. So they’re hoping they don’t have an early frost because they need a full season to allow the crop to get to maturity.
