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Eastern Nebraska farmer says planting begins next week

An eastern Nebraska farmer says he’s two weeks away from seeing planters going ‘fast and furious.’

Quentin Connealy plants corn and soybeans near Tekamah in the Missouri River bottom. “This week everybody is kind of getting antsy. We’re getting some field work done,” Connealy says. “We’ve been going through planters and making sure the technical stuff is ready to go. I think we’ll get them out next week and try some planting.”

He tells Brownfield so far Mother Nature is cooperating. “We had a nice wet March. We got some moisture back in the ground from our lack of moisture last year. We might still have some deficit but hopefully we can score some rains here through the growing season,” Connealy says.

Connealy says because of the 2019 flood he’s behind on a few crop rotations. “We did a little extra corn on corn this year because we can grow better corn on the river bottom whereas beans can get a little wet feet,” he says. “It’s hard to grow top notch beans, we tend to lean towards corn anyways and prices are sure helping with that.”

He says the expected cool weather next week shouldn’t delay his start.