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Nebraska crops still behind average as harvest quickly approaches
A Northeast Nebraska farmer says harvest is about three weeks away.
Quentin Connealy grows corn and soybeans near Tekamah. “Corn looks like it’s really drying down and getting brown here and it looks like it’s going to be dry here the next couple of weeks here with mid-to-high 80-degree weather so it could get going pretty fast,” he says.
The latest crop progress report from the USDA says 78 percent of corn has dented, five percent behind last year with 64 percent rated good-to-excellent.
Coneally tells Brownfield his soybeans are getting closer. “We’ve got some beans starting to turn colors. I think they’re probably 10 days to two weeks out at the earliest.”
Twenty percent of soybeans have dropped leaves, 14 percent behind last year.
Connealy says Mother Nature has also brought relief. “Two weeks ago, we had about 5 inches of rain down here. We should finish out the beans alright and put some test weight on the corn so we should be sitting there, and we turned the wells off two weeks ago we were watering some beans to finishing them out and late corn,” Connealy says. “We haven’t irrigated in a couple of weeks.”
Winter wheat planting is underway with 1 percent of the crop in.
Sorghum condition is rated 51 percent good-to-excellent with 81 percent coloring.
Seven percent of dry edible beans have been harvested.
Pasture and range conditions are rated 28 percent good-to-excellent.
