As heat bears down on crops, Nebraska farmers say drought could change what’s grown here

WAVERLY, Neb. (KLKN) – Nebraska farmers might be forced to find different crops if the drought keeps building.

Heat can be a great thing for crops.

But over the past few years, it’s been all sun and little rain.

Tom Peterson, a farmer near Waverly, said if the weather continues to trend in that direction, farmers will have to change their ways.

“It’s kind of been a three, four-year period where we’ve been working through this, just looking for timely rains to get us through,” Peterson said. “And hopefully, one day, things will turn around and we’ll get some rain.”

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The sun beat down on crops on Friday, drying out the ground.

While Peterson said he’s had some good, timely rain this year, it’s not enough to filter deep into the soil.

“We just need a lot of soaking rains to build up that soil profile,” he said.

And without the moisture deep in the ground, plants will struggle to stay healthy at the end of summer, when there’s less rain.

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If the drought stays steady in years to come, Peterson said it could really take a toll on crops.

“We had a record year probably four or five years ago,” he said. “Best crop I’ve ever raised. We had almost a perfect summer, rains throughout and things were very, very good.”

The next year, he said the drought caused one of the poorest crop yields he’s had.

“And it’s kind of stayed in this drought period for a while,” Peterson said.

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If the drought gets dire enough, Peterson said farmers might be forced to switch to crops that are more durable in a dry, hot climate.

That includes things like wheat or milo.

But he said those crops would bring their own set of problems.

“You have to haul that further away after you harvest in order to market it, whereas corn is marketed readily anywhere here,” Peterson said.

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He also said corn is “a little more drought tolerant than it used to be” and “raises a pretty good crop when it can raise a crop.”

Peterson said it would also take a long time to transition over to a new crop in the area.

So he’s remaining hopeful that the weather this weekend isn’t an indicator of how the rest of this summer will be.

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