Nebraska farmer says weather has created unprecedented challenges this year

News

Nebraska farmer says weather has created unprecedented challenges this year

An Eastern Nebraska farmer says he’s faced unprecedented challenges this growing season.

Mitch Oswald of Aurora tells Brownfield he’s seen record drought, a late planting season and now extreme wind and hail. “This year is presenting a whole different set of challenges that I did not expect to have this year.”

He says because of those challenges he’s extremely concerned about weed pressure. “We’re going to have to be really proactive on getting weeds sprayed this year and keeping residuals down because on all of my stuff. It is June and I don’t have any cover on the fields and I’m going to be fighting weeds.”

Oswald says he hasn’t had an issue getting crop protection tools, but expenses could stack up quickly. “You’re going to have the cost of at least another pass for herbicide.  Stuff like that adds up in the end.”

He says he’s expecting to replant about 700 acres of crops that were damaged by recent storms.

.