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Nebraska farmer encouraged by crop conditions

An eastern Nebraska farmer says he’s optimistic about the potential of this year’s crop despite a number of weather challenges.

Quentin Connealy says it was abnormally dry until August. “We maybe lost a little bit of test weight. I don’t think we had enough water to get the test weight on the dryland corn, but we had enough irrigation and plentiful rains on the irrigated side.”

As for soybeans, he tells Brownfield, “There are a few little spots where the lodged with the wind. I think putting water where we could last week will help fill some pods. Where we’ve walked, we’re seeing some good pod counts around here.”

The USDA says 53 percent of corn is rated good-to-excellent, and 64 percent of soybeans are in good-to-excellent shape.