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Farmer says drought recovery has a long timetable

Many areas of the Corn Belt have recently received much needed rainfall to help improve drought conditions, but one farmer says there is still a long way to go.

Chris Clausen farms an hour west of Omaha, Nebraska, and says the area’s first major rain event in two years occurred last week. “We are still very dry.  Two inches got soaked up quite quickly.”

The latest US Drought Monitor shows portions of Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas are experiencing exceptional drought while a larger area is in extreme drought. 

Clausen tells Brownfield any moisture this winter could make a significant improvement.

“Oh, it’s going to take quite a bit. The last two winters we have been very dry. I would think we would need another 4 or 5 inches this fall, and then quite a bit of rainfall this spring to get us caught up to where we feel comfortable planting crops.”

The Drought Monitor shows that 67 percent of the state remains in some classification of drought, which is an improvement from 2022 when the entire state was in drought.