Its only June but farmers with the ability to irrigate their crops have the water running on their fields. Crops in non-irrigated fields were fading earlier this week with high temperatures and drying winds. Ponds are dry or drying up and some cattlemen have begun hauling water. Others are using wells that have long been idle.
Twenty percent of Nebraska is in extreme drought, most of that is in the eastern half of state where 10.9 percent of the land is under an even worse exceptional drought category. Conditions in the west have improved when compared to last year. Water flowing in from Colorado even caused a minor flood warning on the Platte River west of Kearney.
With the uncertainty surrounding agriculture’s prospects, the state’s economy is feeling the effects. Here in Superior there are several businesses for sale, others have or are in the process of closing.
While prices have risen sharply, Nebraska retail sales for March (the latest month for which the Nebraska Department of Revenue has published a report) show 2023 sales were up only 4.6 percent when compared to 2022.
Nuckolls County sales for March were up 9.9 percent over 2022. Superior sales were up 5.9 percent. But not all counties were so fortunate. Adams County’s sales declined eight tenths of a percent. The decline for Hastings was seven tenths of a percent. Clay County sales as a whole were down two tenths of a percent but Sutton reported a sales gain of 3.3 percent. Fillmore County sales rose 2.2 percent but Geneva’s sales declined 10.7 percent. Webster County sales declined 5 percent. Red Cloud’s decline was even greater at 5.7 percent.
Thayer County is the bright spot. Retail sales in March grew 12,3 percent for the county. For Hebron, sales were up 4.3 percent.
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