Drought is one of the top concerns among farmers and ranchers in Nebraska

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – The Nebraska Farm Bureau spoke on Thursday about the top concerns among farmers and ranchers in Nebraska.

The most important concerns being crop input costs and drought.

Experts say that farm income is up, but the cost of production has soared to record levels, meaning farmers are often just breaking even.

The bureau said the cost of diesel, fertilizers, hay and other products used by farmers and ranchers have risen significantly since January of 2021.

Jay Rempe, senior economist of the Nebraska Farm Bureau, said farmers are seeing a lot of the same problems that many businesses have seen with inflation.

“We have supply problems, the international issues with Russia and Ukraine,” he said. “A lot of these it’s kind of a perfect storm, and unfortunately, as we move into 2023, I don’t see it getting a lot better for our farmers and ranchers in terms of the input costs.”

Rempe says the condition of pastures in Nebraska this year was rated from poor to very poor, and the impact of drought is causing farmers to yield fewer crops.

The bureau said since agriculture is such a large business in Nebraska, any losses can affect the economy significantly.

Corn, soybean, and wheat have been the most impacted this year, according to the bureau

Those crops alone will have a total estimated loss of nearly $2 billion in value because of the drought.

“So that is a lost opportunity for the state of Nebraska, not only for our producers but for our rural communities and the spillover effects into our rural economies,” Rempe said. “So that’s something that’s missing this year that normally we as a state would’ve had in terms of economic activity that we’re not gonna have this year.”

He says insurance can help offset these losses but there will still be an impact on the state.

Ranchers have also had to make tough spending decisions and many have started to “liquidate” animals based on the state of pastures and the cost of feeding supplies.

The bureau says this will impact meat supply and prices over the next few years across the country.

Nathan Dorn, a farmer and rancher from Firth, Nebraska, said his farm has seen a drop in yield with the drought and he’s had to raise the prices of his products to make up for it.

“As a farmer, it’s very difficult to see,” Dorn said. “And this year we’re not making agronomic versus economic decisions, we’re making poor economic decisions versus very poor economic decisions. Nothing seems to be working right as far as penciling out the numbers.”

Dorn also said the recent fires in the area were made worse by the dry conditions and are just another challenge farmers will have to face in the near future.

He also said he helped work with his neighbors to stop the spread of the blaze from hurting their yield even further.

“Seeing farmers pull together to help their community is nothing new,” Dorn said. “I mean that happens every day in rural America. This was just another example of us being in a position where something we have can do some good and stepping up and filling the void.”

Dorn said farmers will always work together as a community to stay afloat, so even as costs rise and droughts continue, farmers will be working to avoid financial difficulty.

The bureau hopes that with the high revenues farmers are currently seeing, they’ll be able to keep from falling into a recession but it’s a fine line to stick to.

Farmers, as well as policymakers, will have to be cautious about how they spend their money to prevent losses as time goes on, the bureau said.