USDA: Nebraska winter wheat crop to be 14 percent smaller

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Nebraska’s winter wheat crop is expected to be 14 percent smaller than last year.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts Nebraska farmers will produce 61.3 million bushels of winter wheat this year on 1.46 million acres.

The average yield is expected to be 42 bushels per acre. That’s down from 49 bushels a year ago.

At its most recent update, the USDA says only 38 percent of Nebraska’s winter wheat was in good or excellent condition.

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Planting of Nebraska soybean crop trailing 5-year average

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Authorities say last week’s rainfall across some parts of Nebraska again delayed farmers’ work in their fields.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says that as of Sunday, 83 percent of the expected Nebraska soybean crop had been planted, trailing the five-year average of 95 percent by the date. And 97 percent of the expected corn crop had been planted, compared with the five-year average of nearly 100 percent.

Just 59 percent of the expected sorghum crop had been planted

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Corn, soybean prices see no major price drops from bird flu

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Corn and soybean producers are keeping a close eye on the bird flu outbreak, concerned that the loss of nearly 45 million birds might reduce demand for poultry feed made with the grains and send prices lower.

Todd Hultman, a grain market analyst for DTN, an Omaha, Nebraska-based agriculture market data provider, says there appears to be no significant impact to commodity prices in part because demand remains strong from other sources, such as hog and cattle producers.

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Programs for Disaster Affected Crops at FSA

(Rushville, Nebraska), May 29, 2015 – The month of May has been a busy one in Sheridan County in regards to weather events that have affected our local agricultural producers.  We have had heavy, wet snow that caused young calves to die, freezing temperatures that may have affected the wheat crop and so much rain now that much of the areas corn producers haven’t been able to plant their 2015 crop of corn and hay producers might not be able to hay their low laying ground.

Sheridan County

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Cattle Stockmanship and BQA Workshops Coming to Western Nebraska

Nebraska Extension and Nebraska Beef Quality Assurance are presenting two cattle handling demonstrations in June by noted animal handling expert Curt Pate.

The presentation dates and locations include:

June 22, Mitchell: 4 p.m. MST, Scotts Bluff County Fairgrounds. (BQA followed at 5:30 with Meal and Live Animal Demonstration)

June 23, Valentine: 5 p.m. CST, Valentine Livestock Auction. (Live Animal Demonstration followed by Meal and BQA)

For more than a decade, Curt Pate has strived to

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Managing Downy Brome program set for June 24 at Panhandle Center

Downy brome is a destructive annual weed that has invaded many rangelands and pastures.

Winter annual grasses such as downy brome are often referred to as cheatgrass.  Cheatgrass can be a significant invasive species on grazing lands. Because of its early spring growth, it gets a jump on native species and “cheats” them of valuable moisture, thus reducing native plant health and vigor as well as species diversity. The plant can quickly overtake a site and out-compete other plants for water and

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Nebraska corn planting lags 5-year average, USDA says

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Authorities say last week’s rainfall across much of the state delayed Nebraska farmers’ work in their fields.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says that as of Sunday, 92 percent of the expected Nebraska corn crop had been planted, trailing the five-year average of 96 percent by the date. And just 59 percent of the expected soybean crop had been planted, compared with the five-year average of 73 percent and the 85 percent of last year.

However, 50 percent of the expected

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Nebraska farm, ranch tourism liability bill passes

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Farmers and ranchers who open their property to tourists could be shielded from certain lawsuits under a bill passed by Nebraska lawmakers.

The Legislature gave the measure final approval on Thursday with a 46-0 vote.

Sen. Ken Schilz of Ogallala has said he introduced it to promote rural tourism and give farmers and ranchers another potential revenue source without the fear of lawsuits.

The bill is aimed at sites such as working farms and ranches, hiking trails, lakes

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Nebraska farmers have most of their corn crop planted

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Farmers had trouble getting out in the field last week because of widespread rain across Nebraska, but most of the state’s corn crop has been planted.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday that 85 percent of the corn crop has been planted. That’s only slightly behind the average of 87 percent for this time of year.

The soybean crop isn’t as far along as the corn crop. Roughly 41 percent of the soybeans have been planted. That’s down from the average of 51 percent

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