Flooding keeping farmers out of fields

Apr 08, 2019

Waterlogged soils are keeping Nebraskan farmers from completing fieldwork

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

Farmers in parts of the U.S. Midwest can do nothing but wait for conditions to improve before completing field work.

Flooded fields and roads are keeping farmers from doing any kind of field work, said Boone McAfee, director of research with the Nebraska Corn Board.

“Farmers would like to be planting soon but I don’t think that’s going to be possible because I still think we’re in the cleanup and assessment stage,” he told Farms.com.

“Fields are just too wet, and some farmers that did try to do some field work ran into muddy soils and had to stop.”

The Nebraska Department of Agriculture pegged damage to the state’s ag industry at around US$400 million of livestock damage and US$440 million in crop losses since the flooding began last month.

The flooding has the potential to affect more than 400,000 corn and soybean acres, said Kyle Taplet, an ag meteorologist with Maxar.

In total, 81 of Nebraska’s 93 counties have issued disaster declarations.

More wet weather is on the way as rain is forecasted to arrive Wednesday, Thursday and possibly Sunday.

The added rain will do more damage to rural infrastructure, McAfee said.

“In addition to the fields being too wet to work, we’ve got bridges out and roads damaged,” he said.

“If you’ve got the heavy farm equipment traveling on those roads you’ve got to be careful and make sure that it’s safe to do so.

“I think it’s going to be several years before Nebraska is back to normal.”

Farms.com has reached out to the Nebraska Department of Agriculture and Nebraska Soybean Board for further updates.

Reuters photo

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.