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