Posted on 04/25/2022 11:53:59 AM PDT by EBH
Multiple wildfires have burned more than 40,000 acres of agricultural land in a pair of Western Corn Belt states.
“It’s going to be very difficult to raise a crop where this fire touched for the next several years.”
Southwest Nebraska farmer Jan TenBensel says one started in Kansas and moved north into Nebraska Friday night burning 2,000 acres of his property. “I’ve lost a little bit of equipment and some irrigation equipment and maybe a couple of pivots. I’ve lost just a few things, but other guys have lost it all.”
TenBensel says the wildfire originated near the Kansas/Nebraska border around Cambridge in Furnas County before the winds shifted on Saturday, pushing the fire east.
He says stubble, corn stalks, cover crops and pastureland have burned. “There’s no where for these cattle to go. A lot of guys lost all of their feed. They’ve lost their summer pasture. Their spring pasture. This coupled with the drought we’re in, our area is in the extreme drought category right now for the drought monitor, and the moisture situation is dire here.”
TenBensel says most of the fire is contained but producers and firefighters continue to put out hotspots.
One death has been reported and evacuation orders have been lifted since Friday night. This is the second major fire in Furnas County after one burned 35,000 acres earlier this month.
According to the Nebraska Forest Service, at least 13 counties – Blaine, Brown, Cherry, Cheyenne, Deuel, Dundy, Furnas, Hayes, Perkins, Scotts Bluff, Red Willow and Thomas Counties – reported wildfires over the weekend.
The Nebraska Emergency Management Agency tells Brownfield the official number of acres burned in Furnas County is 41,155 acres. NEMA says they don’t track a cumulative total of acres burned in all counties since Friday.
Furnas County?
Let me guess-—more farms and food up in flames....
i wonder what it will be like when the news media begins to dig into and report the origin of all these fires. Usually we never hear, other than vague guesses. Local authorities have to know something.
Just 13 counties is all. No pastureland for livestock...all up in smoke.
It is sure getting creepy ain’t it.
Although drought has everything pretty dry out there.
China wages war in a different fashion than the West. The globalist also use famine as a tool. Neither gives aq damn that they kill millions with their strategies.
FARMERS FACING EXTREME WINDS, WILDFIRES SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS AND MOISTURE
A pair Western Corn Belt farmers say they’re left with few solutions to start the growing season after extreme winds and wildfires destroyed cropland.
South Central Nebraska farmer Tim Rowe tells Brownfield his priority is to irrigate and not disturb the soil. “We’ve got to get this wind stop somehow to let any type of vegetation start whatsoever and then we can continue to go on from there,” he says. But, I don’t think this wind is going to stop until we get a rain event.”
Rowe, who farms near Elwood, says planting will need to begin soon. “That plan has changed five times a day for the last four days. My initial reaction was to get oats planted right away, but then by the time the oats get up there, I’d like to get corn and soybeans planted and then I’ll be burning the oats up before I ever get started.”
Jan TenBensel of Cambridge says he’s facing the same issue. “The biggest challenge we’re going to have is getting cover back on this ground. How do we get a crop to start with the winds blowing like this and we don’t get any moisture to get started? How do we get a cover crop or a cash crop to get going?
Rowe suffered damage from a fire in Furnas County in early April, and TenBensel says he’s still assessing damage from a separate wildfire this weekend in the same county. “We’re going to see the effects of this for several years.”
News media dig in? Uh, okay. We’ll wait for that.
I wonder if there will be time to plant new crops.
The soil will be better after the fire. I know that there are winter wheat crops. Maybe the farmers can use the types of seeds that are used in N. Dakota/Minn. Shorter growing season.
White supremacists or PTA moms.
Right now the problem is wind with no rain. Vegetation cannot grow as the wind sucks any moisture right out of the seedlings.
Yeah, there's no conspiracy theory here. It's just drier than anything 'round here and it's fire season.
Why so many fires? Who is setting them?
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