By Jackie Ourada
Nebraska’s winter wheat farmers could be abandoning much of their crop this year due to one of the most devastating droughts on record.
In the most recent update last week from the National Drought Mitigation Center, nearly 10% of the state is now in “exceptional” drought, the most severe classification on the drought monitor scale. That’s more than doubled from 4% recorded in the first week of May.
The two areas of exceptional drought in the Panhandle and in southwestern Nebraska both widened last week. What started as exceptional drought in much of Morrill County has now spread to encompass Morrill, Garden, Grant and Arthur counties. Parts of Scotts Bluff, Banner and Cheyenne counties are also included in the worsening area.
The other area of exceptional drought in southwestern Nebraska only sat in the corners of Lincoln, Dawson, Frontier and Gosper counties last week, but in the Thursday update, the National Drought Mitigation Center increased the area to include much of Dawson County, a growing area of Lincoln County, most of Frontier County and nearly half of Gosper County.
Many of these areas are home to Nebraska’s winter wheat crop – the state’s third-largest field crop export behind corn and soybeans. In 2023, the state’s wheat production drew in $255 million from 880,000 acres harvested The state exported around $124 million in winter wheat in 2023. It’s an important crop for bread and flour production but also has important ag uses such as cattle feed. Nebraska mostly raises hard red winter wheat, but it’s also one of a few states that also grows hard white wheat.
Those numbers are expected to dramatically drop this year when Nebraska farmers harvest. The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service predicted this month that 580,000 acres will be harvested. That’s about 225,000 acres lower than last year’s harvest. Eighty-five percent of wheat acres were harvested last year, but only 64% is expected to be harvested in 2026.
Very dry conditions throughout the winter and several sudden freezes damaged quite a few wheat fields earlier this year, according to Nebraska Extension. Dryland cropping specialist Amanda Easterly said the intermittent freezes after a warm period stressed the crops at a critical time when wheat was booting and heading, which are important reproductive phases for the crops.
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