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Agronomist shares cautious optimism for Nebraska harvest

A field agronomist is cautiously optimistic ahead of harvest.

Trey Stephens, with Beck’s Hybrids tells Brownfield he expects corn yields to be better in Nebraska than last year. As for soybeans…

“I have a little healthy skepticism on it just because of the lack of rainfall that we’ve gotten,” he says. “The dry land acres I think are gonna be a toss up and the irrigated I think will be better off just because of the early rain that we did get to help those beans.”

He says soybean planting varied, from early April to June.

“We’ll see what pans out. Generally, the science would say the earlier planted beans pay, but we’ll see this year,” he says.

Stephens says the weather pattern also led to more cases of Southern Rust in Nebraska.

“I think just the early start to the year, the moisture gave a lot of people a positive outlook on applying fungicides in most cases,” he says. “I was happy with a lot of practices this year as far as just trying to protect and mitigate against Southern Rust.”

Brownfield interviewed Stephens at the Beck’s Hybrids booth at the 2024 Husker Harvest Days, near Grand Island, Nebraska.

AUDIO: Trey Stephens, Beck’s Hybrids