Drought and increased production costs create 'perfect storm' for farmers

LINCOLN, Neb. — The Nebraska Farm Bureau estimates this year's drought cost the state's AG industry nearly $2 billion in lost production. And the drought could deepen its impact on 2023.

A new map released Thursday shows severe drought expanded across southeastern counties and extreme drought grew across some central Nebraska areas.

KETV Newswatch 7 talked to one producer south of Lincoln where the dry conditions have not only been costly but last weekend became dangerous.

"It's incredibly brittle. There's just there's not a lot of moisture in it," said Nathan Dorn, breaking a cornstalk in one of his harvested fields near Adams.

Dorn said this is why a little spark and a lot of wind can create a lot of concern.

His farm is just southeast of where two wildfires torched hundreds of acres, injured two firefighters and destroyed three homes on Sunday.

Dorn was one of the dozens of farmers who used his equipment to help create fire lines.

"The lack of precipitation for the last 90 or 120 days really affected how dry and how fast that fire was able to spread," Dorn said.

It's the perfect illustration of what farmers could be facing if there's no relief.

"If we came out here in the spring, and this is the conditions we're in, we'd plant but it'd be very hesitant about whether it's going to come up or not," Dorn said.

New surveys show 80% of pasture land in Nebraska is poor or very poor. And nearly 50% of subsoil moisture is very short.

"All of Nebraska currently is in a drought. We're almost as dry as we were in 2012," said Nebraska Farm Bureau President Mark McHague.

According to USDA Crop reports Nebraska's corn production will be down 14% and soybeans down 20% from 2021.

"It's almost $2 billion in the value of our crop production this year," said Nebraska Farm Bureau's senior economist Jay Rempe.

Rempe said on top of that, the cost for diesel has increased 118%, fertilizer 94% chemicals 55% and feed costs 28% since a year ago.

"It's kind of a perfect storm. And unfortunately, as we move into 2023 I don't see it going up better for our farmers and ranchers," Rempe said.

That leaves farmers such as Dorn with tough decisions ahead.

"As we get our fertilizer in, instead of putting on 100 pounds per acre, maybe we're going to put on 50 or 60 pounds an acre because that's what we can afford this year," Dorn said.

Some cattle producers are already liquidating part of their herds.

"We're not buying young cattle we're keeping everything another year into our hurt gets older and becomes less valuable," Dorn said.

And that could eventually have an impact at the grocery store.

"For consumers the cost of that steak and the availability steak, it's going to be a little bit higher," Rempe said.

And less money from the fields will mean fewer dollars blow across the rest of the state.

"We need four inches of rain over the course of two weeks," Dorn said.

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