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Supply chain disruptions, pivot repairs cost Western Corn Belt crops top-end yields

Supply chain disruptions and the lack of irrigation repairs might have cut top-end yields for some crops in the Western Corn Belt.

Danny Gardner farms near Sioux City, Iowa and tells Brownfield he couldn’t repair a pivot when drought intensified this summer, which led to pollination issues. “A variable frequency drive for a pivot – that one in particular – I don’t know how many months we waited but we spent a lot of time not irrigating when we wish we could have.”

Jamey Kohake with Paragon Investments – a commodity brokerage service – says the aftermath of widespread storm damage earlier this growing season will be seen at harvest. “We saw the wind and hail damage in Nebraska during the late spring season.  A lot of pivots got damaged and never got replaced.  We saw lower crop conditions there.  Usually, you get an average trend-line with the irrigation in Nebraska.”

Kohake says crop conditions decline quickly west of Interstate 35.