STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSES MOUTH

Duane A. Lienemann,

UNL Extension Educator,

Webster County

I don’t think it will surprise people in South Central Nebraska that we are abnormally dry. When I say that because it seems that we just came out from under about a 6-7 year drought, go a couple of years reprieve and here we are again. There is no doubt that we are full into the teeth of a very dry end of spring and it really doesn’t look much better for the future. With the official start of the 2012 summer on June 20, it just is not looking good for our dryland crops and especially our pasture and hay-lands. There just isn’t another way of putting other than “dry is dry”.

This is starting to get serious and the timing couldn’t be worse. Here we have a record demand for corn and as I understand it have planted a record number of acres that should be poised to produce a record crop and Mother Nature is not ready to deliver on our expectations. While most of the farmers I talked to said that planting conditions were near perfect early on, soils are drying out unexpectedly early in this growing season, and some authorities are already trimming potential yields. In fact, you don’t have to be much of an authority to probably predict that. One thing is for certain, nobody has been overworked emptying their rain gauge? It seems even with the departure of La Nina, which brought dry conditions in 2010 and 2011 to our neighbors to the south, has left us with similarly dry conditions in South Central Nebraska. If you are brave enough, you can go to http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/ and keep track of the drought as our part of the country accumulates yellow, tan and brown colors on the Drought Monitor map.
I have scouted the southern half of Nuckolls, Webster and Franklin counties over this past week and I have to admit that it is worse than I thought it would be in the southern half of these three counties. We are at August type conditions in the Superior to Red Cloud area with our pastures and hay lands. Most producers indicated they won’t get a prairie hay cutting this year and the dry-land alfalfa fields without rain will likely not have over 2 cuttings. Cool season grasses have matured early and are short on tonnage, the warm season grasses are lying dormant. In touring Nuckolls County and talking to producers in that area, it sounds and looks like it is very dry in the area from Lawrence, NE to Nelson, NE carrying right into the drought like conditions in eastern Webster County. It seems worse in Webster County in the Guide Rock area and slightly better as you go towards the middle of Webster County, but very close to becoming critical.
I went out on with Val Phelps, FSA director for Franklin County to look at conditions from Riverton in SE Franklin County to south and east of Naponee, NE in SW Franklin County. We then went about 12 miles North and then east to get a feeling for the center part of the county. We found the condition very similar to the Red Cloud conditions at Riverton and found it less drought affected but still on the critical edge as we went further west. I pasture we looked at showed a pretty good condition with either limited grazing, and very good management while the pastures across from this one showing typical signs of drought. I would say it is more like July conditions in those areas. It appeared to us that there had been more rain in the western half of Franklin and northern Webster counties, and it showed in the grass and hay-land areas.

I then traveled north out of Franklin and checked pasture conditions as I went, finding conditions getting somewhat better as I went North on Highway 10. I then followed Highway 4 past Upland, Campbell, Bladen and Blue Hill. These areas were more likely similar in condition to the Naponee area, showing the effects of a higher amount of rainfall in the last couple of weeks. But, the area is showing stress and will like start to suffer with heat, wind and lack of moisture. It already has a July look to it. Terri Post, FSA Director at Webster County and I will be discussing the conditions and will be making a similar swing through Webster County in the near future. In most pastures we found grasses with stunted, dry (crunchy to the step) and brown areas on the top of ridges and on side hills. There are short elongations between nodes on the grass with about half of the shoots coming from the crown not surviving showing withering and dead shoots. There are bare spots and the pastures have a blue to brownish cast. You can especially see the difference in management with some pastures showing the effects of the drought we had from 2001 to 2008 and from probably overgrazing or lack of proper management practices. You can really see the effect of not getting rain last fall and then getting short changed on snow this winter and getting by-passed by significant rains all spring.

It may not surprise you to know that this looks to be the hottest spring on record since 1895. And no, I do not remember that. This spring (March, April, and May) was actually a record breaker across much of the Midwest, not just here. Average temperatures were above normal in nearly every large city in the region, with some instances in excess of 8 degrees above normal. Many locations also broke all-time Spring temperature records. According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, the earliest start to the wheat harvest in Kansas since records began in 1952 has occurred this year. I know they have started cutting wheat just across the border and I know several farmers in the further south portions of Webster County are poised to start after this weekend. I guess I should have taken the bet from some people who challenged my prediction a couple of months ago for mid-June wheat harvest. I feel badly for those whose wheat was so affected by the heat. It seems that we are seeing yield potential dropping daily. And to add insult to injury, I know that a lot of fields of wheat got hit throughout our region and it will now take a Kirby or Oreck header to get the grain!

The preceding information comes from the research and personal observations of the writer which may or may not reflect the views of UNL or UNL Extension. For more further information on these or other topics contact D. A. Lienemann, UNL Extension Educator for Webster County in Red Cloud, (402) 746-3417 or email to: dlienemann2@unl.edu or go to the website at: www.webster.unl.edu/home