News

Nebraska farmer welcomes recent rain but concerned about wet pattern

A corn and soybean farmer in south-central Nebraska says recent rainfall helped the drought but is worried a wet pattern might disrupt the start to planting.

“Now it’s time for the sun to come out so we can think about getting some crops in the ground,” Randy Uhrmacher of Hastings tells Brownfield.

He says as long as Mother Nature cooperates planting is two to three weeks away.  “Once you get in these patterns it seems like you stay in those patters and that’s the thing I look ahead going ‘Well are we turning wet and is it going to be a late planting season or not’? It could go either way,” he says.

He says they received more than eight inches in two weeks, which is more than they had from June through February. “The first five inches not much ran off, but the last rain event, it rained straight for about 36 hours,” he says. “Fields are starting to show ponding out in the fields and we have some run off.”

Uhrmacher says they were able complete most of their fieldwork last fall and once it dries out, they’ll be ready to start planting.

“It’s Mother Nature so you flip a coin.”