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Dry pea harvest off to early start in Nebraska panhandle

A Nebraska Extension educator says dry pea harvest got an early start in the state’s panhandle.

Gary Stone tells Brownfield the hot weather matured crops quicker and yields are mixed.

“Probably when the peas were setting blossoms we might have had some pretty extreme temperatures into the upper 90s and even into the 100s, and the blossoms just dropped,” he says.

Dry pea harvest generally starts after the completion of red winter wheat harvest. Stone says while the crop doesn’t require a lot of moisture, there was some hail damage.

“Even the dry bean companies are a little bit worried that this first blossom set won’t set pods,” he says.

Stone says other crops in the region are performing well.

“Corn is looking pretty good, sugar beets are looking real good. They bounced back from the hail that we had. Alfalfa is all over the board, dependent on if growers had time to get it cut and put up,” he says.

He says growers are hoping for an extended fall so there’s enough time for replanted beans to mature.

Photo credit: Chabella Guzman, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Panhandle Research, Extension & Education Center