Little to No Snow This Winter Leaves Nearly 100% of Nebraska Facing Drought Conditions

Snowfall has been sparse across Nebraska this winter, but a cattleman said the lack of snow has made for “beautiful cattle feeding” conditions.

Craig Uden, a fourth generation cattleman and part-owner of Darr Feedlot in Central Nebraska, said there have only been about six inches of snow all winter long. Despite the lack of snow, Uden said the weather has been “wonderful for cattle feeding conditions.”

A lot of Uden’s cattle have been able to stay in the corn fields as a result of “so many 50 to 60℉ days. It’s actually been a tremendously easy year to winter cows,” Uden said.

La Niña similar to 2022 causing concern

As the winter continues with a La Niña weather pattern, Uden said “we don’t know if it’s going to rain a lot” come the spring and summer months. 

Right now, Uden said this year’s La Niña weather “is acting a lot like the last one.” During the La Niña in 2022, drought conditions in Nebraska got really bad, he said.

The drought that year was so severe, Uden said, that he weaned calves on his cow/calf operation in July and August. “We’ve never weaned that early.”

Along with weaning cattle sooner than normal, Uden sold a lot of cull cows. During that time, Uden said they made the most of the hot and dry conditions and “liquidated a lot of old cows.” Now, he said he has a really young herd that also happens to be the smallest cow herd he’s had.

“Hopefully we get a lot of rain between now and May,” Uden said. Not only would that help ease drought conditions across the state, but he said it would make it easier for him to keep more heifers because grass conditions would improve.

Finding grass in Nebraska a concern

“If I knew I could go to grass, I would keep more heifers,” Uden said. Aside from poor pasture conditions, Uden said there’s also a labor issue and opportunity cost with keeping additional heifers on his operation. 

Uden explained the challenge, “Carrying [a heifer] for a year and a half and not seeing a return when the heifer costs you two-and-a-half times what she’s worth and the interest rate is double.”

The concern of being able to find grass increases the stress of keeping additional heifers, Uden said. Because of the dry summer last year, Uden said “people have used up more grass than they wanted to.”

That, paired with a lack of substantial precipitation in the last 90 days has many people that lease their pastures to cattlemen unwilling to take on any more cattle in Nebraska, Uden said.

According to the latest drought monitor map, less than 1% of Nebraska is free from drought stress. Eight percent of the state is abnormally dry, 44% is in D1 moderate drought, 40% is in D2 severe drought, and the remaining 8% is in D3 extreme drought.

If dry conditions persist, Uden said he’s spoken to folks in Kansas about putting his cattle on their pastures. For now, though, he said “[the cattle] will probably stay at home,” because of decent subsoil on his operation.

Water a concern as ‘chronically dry period’ continues

Uden said that, while grass and healthy pastures to feed cattle are going to be a concern if Nebraska doesn’t get rain, water is also going to become a big issue.

In a recent dry year, Uden said that was an issue farmers in the neighboring state of Kansas faced. “They had the grass, but they didn’t have the water,” Uden said. 

Typically, Uden said “Nebraska has the water, but we don’t have the grass.”

For the past 25 to 30 years, Uden said Nebraska has been in a dry pattern. “That’s been one of my biggest challenges in my 30 years of running cows,” he said. 

Where Uden is located, though, the subsoil moisture is doing well this year, he said. Some decent moisture and a less windy winter has made things easier. “We still need a lot of rain,” Uden said, “but at least we haven’t had extreme winds this year.”