AXTELL, Neb. — Droughts have plagued most of the Cornhusker State for close to a year, and while conditions have improved during the spring and summer months, its impact extends far beyond the grain markets.
According to the National Weather Service, western and southwestern Nebraska are still experiencing severe drought.
“Some conditions have improved and that was in late winter, early spring, and now, you know, toward the latter half of spring and summer, they’ve dried out again,” said Chris Buttler, North Platte NWS Senior Forecaster.
Perhaps even more worrisome as the rest of the state improves from drier weather, certain parts continue to struggle.
“We’re starting to see not so much deterioration of drought conditions, but drought conditions that are kind of status quo in those areas where a lot of the other areas in central, southwestern Nebraska have seen improvements,” said Buttler.
Royce Schaneman, the Nebraska Wheat Board Executive Director, noted that rain didn’t start to pick up until right before harvest season.
“Which is not ideal, but it was just enough to help the crop get through and it delayed harvest a little bit,” explained Royce Schaneman, Nebraska Wheat Board Executive Director. “Last fall, we had drought conditions that they planted into, really drought conditions all winter long, and then through most of the growing season.”
“Over the past 4-6 weeks, we’ve seen some pretty significant improvements in drought conditions,” said Buttler.
Buttler even added that these conditions may go into effect through the winter months.
“Unfortunately, if we don’t see a lot of improvements here in the next couple of months, I think it’s going to be status quo going into the winter time,” said Buttler. “We’re kind of running out of time. Our wettest part of the year out here in western, southwestern Nebraska is May, June and July. As we head into August and September, we really start to dry out.”
Due to these ongoing weather patterns, Schaneman noted to expect lower wheat supply this year.
“Which should translate into some higher prices for farmers, but we’re really not seeing that, and that just goes to the effect of that these grain commodities are such a world market,” said Schaneman.
Schaneman further explained that the Trump Administration’s tariffs and trade negotiations may also impact grain prices and markets.
“We know there’s going to be peaks and valleys as all these markets play out every year. We just happen to be in a space right now where our inputs are high. We don’t have a lot of great trade deals done, yet so our prices are not in our favor so we don’t have stuff really moving,” said Schaneman.
Schaneman told me the ag producers have welcomed the late season rains which helped reduce input costs for farmers and the amount of irrigation across the state. Wheat markets are also up about .10% on Monday and we will continue to monitor the grain markets and drought conditions update you as more information becomes available.