Category: Newsletter

It’s hard to believe the summer is complete. Kids are headed back to school, and harvest is just around the corner here in the Midwest. The corn has tasseled and pollinated, and soybeans are starting to fill out pods. In many parts of the region, we’ve had timely rains, creating hope for a good harvest. With all the activities going on this time of year, the last thing on people’s minds is end-of-the-year decisions and the 2025 growing season. Time moves quickly and there are decisions to be made that will affect next year’s outcome. For example, if you are on an ORAL lease and thinking about making a tenant change or selling your property this fall or next spring, you must give your tenant notice in writing by September 1st of this year. In Nebraska, the oral lease period runs from March 1st to February 28th of the next year. Per Nebraska statute, you must give 6 months’ notice to your farm tenant to terminate a lease (September 1st) otherwise the tenant has the right to farm the next cropping season.

Madelynn Wuestenberg is an agricultural climatologist for Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. This role is 100% Extension, so her time is spent developing resources related to climate and agriculture, providing timely climate or weather updates, and studying how climate variability may influence current production systems.

Wuestenberg’s background is in meteorology. She earned a bachelor’s degree in meteorology with a minor in agronomy from Iowa State, then stayed to earn a master’s degree in agricultural meteorology. Wuestenberg’s master’s degree research focused on agro-ecosystem modeling.

Her primary experience is in row crop systems, but she is learning more about specialty crop systems through this position and hopes to serve many kinds of producers in Iowa, she said.

For two years, Wuestenberg served as the vice president for the Central Iowa National Weather Association and helped coordinate an annual Severe Storms and Doppler Radar Conference. Severe weather is not her expertise, but she made many connections through this experience and has strong relationships with meteorologists across the Midwest.

As of April 11, 2024, the Nebraska Drought Monitor shows 55% of Nebraska in moderate to exceptional drought (D1-D4), compared to 98% a year ago. Planting is critical for everything else that happens during the growing season. This article shares our UNL planting considerations and provides additional considerations when planting in dry conditions.

Agronomic Considerations

Soil Conditions
This is perhaps the most critical component to planting because soil conditions set the stage for the decisions we make regarding planter adjustments, which crop is planted, and planting depth. Some areas of the state received some fall/winter/spring precipitation to help with replenishing soil moisture, while other areas continue to have a lack of subsoil moisture due to a lack of precipitation events. When planting into drier conditions, increased down pressure is most likely necessary; however, be careful of causing any sidewall compaction.

Soil Moisture, Temperature and Planting Depth
Corn needs to absorb 35% of its weight in moisture to complete the imbibition (water uptake) phase of germination. When adequate soil moisture is available, this typically occurs within 48 hours. Soybean needs to absorb 50% of its weight in moisture to complete the imbibition process. When adequate soil moisture is available, recent research has shown imbibition can occur anywhere from eight to 24 hours. Once imbibition has occurred, soybean seeds enter an osmotic phase and are quite tolerant of soil temps as low as 35-40°F, although extended low soil temperatures can be expected to lengthen the germination to the emergence timeframe.

In general, we’d recommend planting…

Like you, we are also constantly monitoring conditions throughout the Midwest. You’ll find some of the resources we use below to stay on top of soil, planting and drought conditions, including projections.

Certified Appraisal VS. Broker Price Opinion
A common question when it comes to valuing a real estate asset is what type of value do I need? It is a common misconception that an appraisal and a broker price opinion, also known as a market analysis, are the same thing. These terms are sometimes used interchangeably, and while they do have a lot of similarities, they are both very different.

Broker Price Opinion (a.k.a. Market Analysis)
Preparer: Real Estate Broker
Common Uses: Estimate the value of a real estate asset for a real estate sale or set a listing price on a property.
Characteristics: Some characteristics of a Broker Price Opinion are that a range of values is concluded, normally only a simplified sales comparison approach is used, and the report is normally only a few pages.
Pros: There are many pros to this form of opinion of value. Normally a market analysis is…

Wishing everyone a very Happy Holiday season! Thank you for choosing NextAg Real Estate in 2023. You have truly made it a wonderful year and we look forward to serving you in 2024!

We would like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving holiday, while also saying thank you to all of our clientele over the course of 2023! We appreciate you and this time of the year is a profound reminder as we count our many blessings.