Monthly Archives: March 2026
Drought and Nitrogen Use Efficiency
Drought: As of Thursday’s drought monitor release, 99.6% of Nebraska is abnormally dry/in drought. This same week in 2023 was also at 99.6% and similar to 2025 at 98.2%.
What’s also interesting is that currently 77.1% of the entire U.S. is abnormally dry/in drought. That’s actually the highest for last week on record for the U.S. I could find. The other closest years for entire U.S. drought were 72% in 2022; 67% in 2025; and 65% in 2002, 2013, and 2021. We all know it’s dry and we’ll keep praying for much-needed rain.
Cover Crop Termination Timing: I’ve received a number of questions about cover crop termination timing. Several have also contacted me asking about the potential of utilizing these covers for custom grazing cattle impacted by wildfire areas instead of terminating the covers. There’s a number of questions around this and ideas on how to compensate for the grazing/cattle care. To be clear, my goal in sharing this is to help with the questions I’m receiving and to help with a real situation Nebraskans are facing right now. I think the unknowns are how many producers are willing to offer this type of service and how many cattle impacted by wildfires need custom acres to graze. Because producers have asked me who to talk with to obtain answers, I’d suggest contacting the NDA director’s office and possibly commodity groups such as Nebraska Cattlemen’s or Nebraska Farm Bureau to share your thoughts and see if there’s possibility for a decision around this soon.
For farmers with non-irrigated ground, if you’re not planning on using the cover crops for forage, watch soil moisture for your specific fields. While I promote planting crops green into cover crops, the soil moisture situation is dire in the seed zone and terminating pre-plant may be the wisest option. For growers with irrigated ground, again, watch your soil moisture for your specific fields. If choosing to terminate pre-plant, one option is to use clethodim (follow label regarding the wait period of 7-10 days prior to planting corn). Clethodim provides a slower kill and doesn’t cause the covers to “melt down” as rapidly as roundup does. If you choose to plant green, have pivots ready to go in the event you need to provide water into the seed zone after planting into the growing cover.
2026 Nebraska Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) Program: With funding provided by the Nebraska Corn Board and in partnership with the Natural Resources Districts (NRDs), the Nebraska Department of Water, Energy and Environment (DWEE) is administering the Nebraska Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) Program. The purpose of this program is to encourage Nebraska corn producers to improve NUE in their corn fields. Participants are incentivized to achieve a NUE of 1.0 or under, for the 2026 crop as described below. Improving NUE can deliver meaningful economic and environmental benefits without sacrificing productivity.
Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) measures how effectively a crop converts available nitrogen (N) into harvested grain yield, quantifying the relationship between N inputs and crop output. NUE accounts for total available N by including credits such as soil, water, legumes, and manure (lbs./acre) divided by grain yield (bu/acre).
For the 2026 cropping season, applications are due May 15th, 2026, pending funding status, and will be subject to NRD approval. NRD will review and prioritize the applications based on available funding. Methods for application prioritization will be established by each NRD with applicants notified no later than August 15th, 2026, whether their application has been approved or denied. Full details at: https://dnr.nebraska.gov/nebraska-nitrogen-use-efficiency-nue-program.
JenResources 3-22-26
Happy Spring! And in saying that, it’s concerning seeing blooms on our apricot tree already and a tick from the pasture. It all seems so soon and we’re very dry. With that said, I would encourage on warm days without wind to water evergreen trees. We normally don’t recommend to water lawns in March but with as dry as the soil is, it may be helpful to water them once a week. Pushing a screwdriver into the ground will help measure the depth of soil moisture.
Wildfire Support: We were asked to share that Hot Meals USA needs help serving meals to hundreds of first responders and survivors of the Morrill and Cottonwood wildfires. They are also looking for drivers to deliver meals to Ogallala and donations for meals. Website: https://hotmealsusa.org
- Volunteer signup (please scroll down to the later dates listed): https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B084DAEAA29A0FF2-62991726-feeding?useFullSite=true#/
The following article: https://go.unl.edu/fw06 shares a number of resources with direct links for those who want to donate hay or need hay, for monetary donations, and also for resources through the Rural Response Hotline (800) 464-0258. Nebraska Cattlemen https://www.nebraskacattlemen.org/disaster-relief-fund and Nebraska Farm Bureau https://www.nefb.org/disaster also have disaster relief funds. Extension Educator TL Meyer shares the following “livestock recovery and documentation after the wildfire”: https://go.unl.edu/6yiv.
National Soil Scientist Dr. Liz Haney to Lead Soil Health Masterclass in Kansas on March 26 from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Worden Cornerstone Church near Baldwin City. This event is open to farmers, agronomists, crop consultants, conservation professionals and anyone interested in soil health and regenerative agriculture. Hosted by the Kansas Soil Health Alliance, this in-depth workshop will focus on biological soil testing approaches that evaluate soil as a living system rather than relying solely on conventional chemical extraction methods. Unlike traditional soil tests, these approaches measure microbial activity and plant-available nutrient pools that soil organisms are actively cycling. The result is a clearer understanding of how much fertility the soil is already providing. With fertilizer prices continuing to fluctuate and margins tightening, understanding soil function is becoming increasingly important for producers looking to improve efficiency while maintaining productivity. Lunch is included with registration. Please register here: https://bit.ly/Soil-Masterclass
Soil Health & Garden Workshop will be held on April 2nd from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Project Grow Garden Space near 12th St. and Rd N in York. Lunch is included and there’s no charge, but registration is required to the Upper Big Blue NRD at 402-362-6601. On a first come, first serve basis they are doing in-person soil testing for the first 20 attendees. They will be testing for pH and heavy metals. Any soil samples submitted beyond the first 20 will only receive pH testing. Instructions on soil collection will be sent to registered attendees. This free community event is designed to educate and engage participants in understanding the importance of healthy soil for productive gardens and sustainable landscapes. Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or just getting started, you’ll gain practical knowledge and hands-on experience. Topics include: Understanding soil health fundamentals — including pH, structure, and fertility; Live demonstrations of soil testing techniques; rain simulator demonstration showing how different soil types respond to rainfall; Sustainable gardening practices you can apply at home or in community spaces; and Opportunities for community engagement and knowledge sharing.
Nitrogen Management in 2026
With the increasing nitrogen prices, there’s a great opportunity to take the Nitrogen Challenge by trying sensing-based technology on your farm this growing season to help with nitrogen management. How does it work?
- Apply a pre-plant base rate to your field between 50-100 lb N/ac.
- Apply any additional nitrogen the plant needs in season using a sensing based technology like Sentinel Ag.
For the pre-plant base rate, I know only 50-100 lb N/ac is a hard adjustment for many, but in order to use the sensing technology, you really need to have a base rate no more than 120 lb N/ac.
Then somewhere on half of your field, apply a strip of 30 lb N/ac less than your base rate and a strip right next to it of 60 lb N/ac greater than your base rate. Repeat these two strips on the other half of the field. For example, if your base rate is 100 lb N/ac, the low base rate would be 70 lb N/ac and right next to it would be a high strip of 160 lb N/ac. Make sure there’s a high/low paired strip on each side of your field.
The next step is using a sensing technology like Sentinel Ag to monitor when your plants need any additional nitrogen in season. How do you get started? You can go to: https://www.sentinelag.tech/contact to contact Sentinel Ag and connect with a customer service provider.
From there it’s a matter of getting your field(s) into the system and imagery will be received each day during the growing season when cloud cover isn’t a hindrance. Our on-farm research growers since 2022 have saved on average 52 lb N/ac. We’ve had growers locally use Sentinel Ag who never applied additional nitrogen in the growing season. That usually only happens when there’s already high residual nitrate in the soil. However, it’s a great way to utilize that already existing nitrate and to avoid it leaching to the groundwater.
I also stress this as a nitrogen management tool beyond just reducing the amount of nitrogen applied. The satellite imagery has shown when terminated cover crops released their nutrients to the growing crop. We’ve also seen situations where growers added a 60 lb N/ac in-season rate at the correct timing during rapid growth phase and increase yields by 20 bu/ac. Those are things that we as agronomists can’t predict as we can’t predict mineralization for each field nor can we see the light spectrums that the sensors on the satellites can see that detect stress. It’s a beautiful thing how technology is allowing decades of research to become very practical and usable for growers!
So, for those frustrated by nitrogen prices, this is a great year to try in-season nitrogen management for yourself! And, for anyone using Sentinel Ag this year, we’re beginning peer mentoring groups. What does this mean? It can be scary and hard to try new technologies. Growers who have been using Sentinel Ag have volunteered to serve as peer mentors to other interested growers. We plan to help with understanding the imagery, fertigation, and just walk alongside each other to help with confidence in decisions and what we’re seeing. There’s much power in peer learning! If you’re interested in being a part of the Sentinel Ag Peer Mentoring Groups, please contact me at jrees2@unl.edu. We hope to get started by the end of March/beginning of April.
Richard Ferguson has retired after 40 years of service as a UNL Extension Soils Specialist and he will be greatly missed! His retirement celebration will be this Friday, March 20th from 2-4 p.m. at the Goodding Learning Center at UNL’s East campus. There’s also an online book for well-wishes at: https://go.unl.edu/ferguson-retire.
March 2026 Events
Ag Recognition Banquet: Kiwanis Club of Seward invites you to Celebrate Agriculture by attending the 58th Annual Ag Recognition Banquet! It will be held on Monday, March 23 at the Seward County Fairgrounds Ag Pavilion. 5:30 p.m. is the social with prime rib meal at 6:30 p.m. and program/awards at 7 p.m. Being recognized this year for Outstanding Farm Family is Havlat Farms and recognized for the Agribusiness Award is Baack Ag Services. Past award winners who wish to attend should contact Nick Bauer at 402-429-6119 or nick.bauer@fcsamerica.com. Tickets can be purchased and table sponsors can request tables at the following website: https://sewardkiwanis.org/events/ag-recognition-banquet.
Getting Started Farm & Ranch Transition Planning will be held on March 11th from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Bremer Center in Aurora. There is no charge and includes a free lunch. RSVP is request to 402-694-6174. Transition and estate planning is one of the most important topics we face in agriculture!
“Learning the Why Behind the Work” are webinars held each Monday in March at noon CST. The webinars are geared for women who help with chores, decisions, or cattle care but didn’t grow up in agriculture. All are welcome though. Each webinar has been recorded in case you missed one. For remaining webinars: March 9 is on breeding basics; Mar. 16 is on nutrition and body condition scoring; and Mar. 23 is on navigating resources. There is no cost but please go to https://go.unl.edu/hy85 to register and receive the zoom links.
Master Irrigator Nitrogen discussions will be held at a variety of locations this month including March 11th in Norfolk, March 13th in North Platte, and March 18th in Beatrice. More info. at: https://go.unl.edu/master_irrigator.
Manure Management on Crop Ground in Aurora March 17th: Turning manure nutrients into improved crop yields while protecting water and soil quality will be the focus. The day-long sessions, held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. local time, provide DWEE Land Application Training certification. Participants must attend the full program, which includes lunch, to earn certification. Sessions will cover regulatory updates and strategies for using manure effectively on cropland. While certification is available, anyone may attend, including crop farmers and smaller livestock operators seeking practical guidance for their operations.
Hands-on activities will help participants evaluate which fields are best suited for manure application. Each session will present a scenario in which attendees assess potential fields and determine whether manure use would be beneficial or if certain limitations make the site less desirable. Participants will then rank fields by priority based on factors such as nutrient value, transportation cost, soil health, water quality, neighbor proximity, and odor concerns. Regulations and record-keeping requirements for manure storage and application will also be covered. Registration is available at https://water.unl.edu/lat. The cost is $100 per operation requiring certification—typically larger livestock facilities—or $25 per person for attendees not seeking certification, including smaller livestock producers, crop farmers, NRCS staff, and landlords.
Crop-Livestock Integration Case Study
Happy March! We had a great Friday February conversation again. I think the power in that conversation was watching how ideas from previous years of conversations came to fruition with actual data including stocking rates and economics from several growers. The following is a case study where a grower who enjoys cattle wanted to find a way to raise his herd in the Utica, NE area where corn/soy/seed corn is plenty and pasture is limited. He thought outside the box, challenged the status quo and split a pivot into four quarters in 2024.
On one quarter he planted corn, the next quarter was a year of annual forages for strip grazing, the next was cereal rye for seed followed by winter stockpiled annual forages, and the final was soybeans. The pivot corners consist of pasture and one farmstead. The crops on each quarter are rotated clockwise each year. For example, the quarter that was strip-grazed annual forages in 2024 was planted to corn in 2025. Volunteer rye and vetch were grazed before corn was planted in that area and the cows were moved onto oats/peas he planted into the annual forage quarter. As they were dying out, he followed the cows with planting an annual forage summer mix that contained multi-species but was heavier on millets so he didn’t have to worry about removing cows during light frosts (he was avoiding the potential of prussic acid poisoning by using the millets instead of sorghum species). Now the cows are on the winter stockpiled forage that was also a muti-species mix but heavier on the sorghum species side. For a stocking rate, he figures 1 pair per acre (around 33 pairs if he stayed on this quarter system). This would also be a great system for stockers.
Splitting a pivot into quarters wouldn’t perhaps be the easiest set-up for most. His goals were to keep his cows on this one pivot for the entire year and to see what his stocking rate could be as he grew his herd. He also wanted to determine the economics and soil health of this system by the end of four years to see if he could scale it to other pivots on his farm. The beauty of this is that the system could be adapted to each producers’ goals and needs. Pivots could be split in half or converted entirely to suit the individual’s goals.
This grower also wanted to see how much nitrogen…and other nutrients over time…the annual forage grazing contributed to the succeeding corn crop. We’ve heard a potential of 100 lb/ac of nitrogen could be credited, so that was considered in addition to the residual soil nitrate and nitrate in irrigation water. He set up a side-dress on-farm research study where he applied starter fertilizer but no other nitrogen until V2-V3 corn. He had 4 reps including rates of 0, 25, 37.5, 50, and 62.5 lb N/ac applied. The goal was to apply these same rates to the same strips the next time he side-dressed. He then used Sentinel Ag to sense the timing of when he would need additional nitrogen. However at side-dress time, the Sentinel Ag imagery said he only needed nitrogen on the 0 lb and two of the 25 lb/ac strips. So, the grower decided to let it go and see what happened. His yields? While they were down like many in the area, he raised 217 bu/ac on 50 lb N/ac and 178 bu/ac on 0 lb N/ac! For the annual grazing with cow-calf pairs, his economics came to a profit of $683/ac (that was using $300/ac rent cost). Think about his corn and grazing economics for your own system. It’s exciting to me to see a case study like this where crops and livestock are integrated so well to show the benefits of diversity not only for the land and reduced inputs but economically!
And, it’s another example of how Sentinel Ag’s satellite imagery can be used to help with nitrogen management. With March pre-plant nitrogen applications, consider the nitrogen challenge: only apply 50-100 lb N/ac pre-plant and use Sentinel Ag to determine the remaining needs this growing season. Please contact me if you’re interested in more information.
JenResources 