I-80 Planting Tour: Nebraska Farmers Make Up for Lost Ground as Dryness Concerns Mount
I80 Planting Tour Nebraska 050521
Cold temperatures in April squashed hopes for an early planting season here in Nebraska but now that farmers are in the field they're making up for lost ground. Even several states battling drought are managing to get some planting done.
"I just couldn't get excited about putting seed in the ground as expensive as seed is these days and as high as our input costs are why we decided to hold off," Jim Miller, a farmer in Belden, Nebraska told Michelle Rook.
USDA's latest Crop Progress report shows 42% of the corn crop is planted in Nebraska, which is 6% ahead of the five-year average.
Mike Korth farms with his brother Mark near Randolph, Nebraska. He says the field conditions have been nearly ideal and there's enough topsoil moisture to get the crop emerged. However, there's no subsoil reserve.
"We are dry, and it's a big concern," says North. "I mean if we don't get timely rains this area will suffer bad cuz we are dry. I mean we've had a few itty bitty rains here and there but they just haven't amounted to enough. We have, our subsoil is totally depleted.
Korth's farm is nearly 50% irrigated and he's still optimistic that with some timely rains the dryland fields could achieve some good yields.
"I think we could," Korth told Rook. "If everything went right, we could be on board for a bumper crop, maybe not a record crop but a bumper crop."
