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A year of ‘what ifs’ for a Nebraska farmer

An east-central Nebraska farmer says 2020 will probably go down as a year of “what ifs”.

Geoff Ruth of Rising City, Nebraska says their crops got off to a great start. But then things started going south.

“We had some hail and wind come through this spring and summer that’s really took out some top-end yield potential for us—anywhere from five percent green snap, up to as much as 50 to 60 for some guys in the area,” Ruth says

He says the hot and dry weather of late August probably took a little more off top-end yields, especially for the non-irrigated corn.

“We might still find some 200 bushel non-irrigated corn but it’s probably more in that 180 range—which would be down about 20 to 30 bushel from the previous two years.”

Ruth estimates their irrigated corn yields will range from 200 to 270 bushels per acre, depending on the amount of wind and hail damage in a field.