April 4, 2008 

Karen DeBoer, Extension Educator in Cheyenne County: Wheat is greening up in our area. Some fields have spotty stands which could be due to dry soil at seeding time last fall.

Gary Lesoing, Extension Educator in Nemaha County: There hasn't been too much field work completed this spring, except dry fertilizer spread on pastures and wheat. In general wheat is looking better in southeast Nebraska, especially after rains earlier this week. Wheat following wheat probably looks the best. Wheat following soybeans or corn is greening up and looks like it survived the winter. In Nemaha and surrounding counties, rainfall was quite variable earlier this week with reports of 0.25 to almost 1.00 inch. In southern Lancaster and Gage counties rainfall was 1.00-1.25 inches.

Robert Klein, Extension Crops Specialist at the West Central REC, North Platte: Before the rains set in, people had been cutting stalks and fertilizing. Quite a bit of fertilizer is being applied on wheat and corn acres and they're starting to spray some of the wheat for weeds. Weed pressures are pretty light in most fields.

Bill Booker, Extension Educator in Box Butte County: Some wheat fields are greening up a little more vigorously than others. Some field work is underway as producers get ready for planting sugar beets.

Paul Burgener, Extension Agricultural Economist at the Panhandle REC at Scottsbluff: Out here we're seeing a few more acres in dry beans and sugar beets, but nationally, planting intentions for these crops are down, which bodes well for our prices. In reviewing the report, it's interesting that both North Dakota and South Dakota showed major increases in spring wheat and durum. The corn industry would like to see 88-90 million acres in corn, but current intentions are for only 86 million acres. If the number of planted acres doesn't increase enough, corn prices could go to $7/bu.

Dave Stenberg, Extension Educator in Dawson County: It's been cold and relatively dry - we got less than 0.20 inch of precipitation Monday. There's some stalk shredding, but not a lot of field work - hopefully producers are shifting to no-till. A lot of manure has been applied this year to the detriment of country roads. Last year we saw about a 10% shift from soybeans to corn, but we may see that shift back this year, driven by higher nitrogen and soybean prices.

Jennifer Rees, Extension Educator in Clay County: We're seeing more field work - especially last week - and it's included stalk shredding, disking and anhydrous fertilizer applications. Wheat is beginning to green up.

Michael Rethwisch, Extension Educator in Butler County: Some wheat is greening up, but it's not actively growing. There's some calving, and not much fieldwork.

Aaron Nygren, Extension Educator in Colfax County: Field activity is light, but there's been some stalk chopping and anhydrous application. Custom applicators are concerned they may be swamped with work once it warms up.