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Nebraska farmer hoping timely rains continue

South Central Nebraska farmer Don Batie says he’s concerned that timely rains may quit, and drought will intensify.

“Last weekend we had an 80 percent chance very day and ended up with a whopping 10-hundreths.”

He tells Brownfield drought improvement has been spotty with the latest US Drought Monitor showing the region in moderate or severe drought, an improvement from extreme and exceptional drought earlier this year. “We got a lot of snow this winter. We got some rain in May, but we don’t have a whole lot of sub soil moisture. So we’re OK, but we need some rain. I’ve got friends that aren’t that many miles away that are in dire straits.”

Batie says corn and soybeans are looking good, but his winter wheat crop is a mixed bag. “One I had to abandon it because it did not survive the winter, and that was actually under some subsurface drip irrigation. The gravity irrigated wheat, I think it’s going to make it. I haven’t irritated it yet. This spring we didn’t need to. We’ve gotten timely rains, but if I don’t get rain this week, I’ll be putting some irrigation on that here next week.”

He says there are a few rain chances in the forecast for the rest of the week.

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