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Farmers expect similar challenges in ’23: drought and input costs

Farmers attending this years Nebraska Farm Bureau meeting expect similar challenges for the 2023 growing season.

From a multi-year drought to severe weather and skyrocketing input prices, farmers could have another challenging year.

Aaron Kavan tells Brownfield moisture is desperately needed to recharge the soil profile. “Better yields and cheaper feed costs – hopefully maybe a little cheaper feed costs.  I would say both from the row crop and from the livestock side, hopefully, we can have an abundant crop next year.”

And, he says, the last measurable precipitation was in July. “It’s been a tough couple of years that we’ve been in. It’s not just been a 2022 issue.  2021 started off dry and it’s accelerated in 2022.”

Jason Perdue says budgeting for fertilizer has been a challenge and that’s forcing him to adjust how he applies the input. “We’re grid sampling more fields than we normally do just to make sure that we’re not over fertilizing and under fertilizing – just getting the nutrients where we need to so we’re not wasting that resource.”    

Both farmers say those issues could impact profitability without careful risk management strategies.