Some Nebraska Farmers Preparing for Total Crop Loss Due to Drought

Friday, June 30, 2023

As drought plagues Nebraska, dryland farmers are already expecting major yield losses.

And irrigation farmers are barely keeping up by watering constantly.

“Right now, Mother Nature has not been cooperating very well,” said Dan Nerud, a farmer and Nebraska Corn Board member.

Most of Nebraska’s corn comes from eastern Nebraska.

And this year, it is eastern Nebraska that has seen far less rain than usual.

Some parts have only seen 25 to 50% of the normal precipitation in the last 90 days, including Lincoln.

“It’s not looking good right now,” Nerud said.

He predicted that “there’s going to be very little harvested come this fall, if any.”

Crops are in a position to be even worse than in 2012.

At least in 2012, farmers had some subsoil moisture going into the spring.

“This year, we started with very little to almost nonexistent,” Nerud said. “We did burn up pretty bad in ‘12. We had some pretty low yields. But right now, we’re looking at where we may not even have anything on some of the dryland. So it’s already worse.”

In a better year, Nerud said he will get as much as 150 to 200 bushels per acre.

But realistically, this year he says much of his dryland will yield very few bushels — if any.

“Crop insurance agents and adjusters are coming out and starting to look at the dryland corners and some of the dryland fields,” said Kelly Brunkhorst, executive director of the Nebraska Corn Growers Association. “At some point, they will essentially write off those acres because it won’t pay to drive a combine through there and try and harvest little or nothing.”

Crop insurance will offset some of the costs, but not everything.

With increased prices for fertilizer, seed and land, many farmers will be at a loss.

Low hay yields are also affecting livestock.

Normally, Nerud said he has 200 to 225 big, round bales at this point.

Right now, he has about 10.