SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. — Severe drought conditions and a lack of mountain snowpack are forcing some western Nebraska farmers to dramatically scale back production this year, including one Scottsbluff-area operation that will plant just 60 acres out of its usual 1,000.
Andy Groskopf, who farms with his father north of Scottsbluff, said the family’s irrigated operation typically grows corn and dry edible beans. This year, however, uncertainty surrounding surface water deliveries has forced major changes.
“Out of that 1,000, we’re farming 60 because it’s a well-only farm and they’re holding us to it,” Groskopf said. “So now we have to plant those 60 acres of corn.”
Groskopf said the biggest concern is not only the lack of irrigation water flowing from Wyoming, but also the long-term impacts on groundwater supplies in the region. Many Panhandle producers depend on both surface water deliveries and groundwater recharge tied to irrigation canal systems.
“With the canals not running, usually they run in May, and they fill the inland lakes and stuff, and we all see a big difference in our wells around here,” Groskopf said. “It recharges. Without that this year, it’s going to get pretty tough to live in certain spots.”
Gary Stone, a Nebraska Extension educator at the Panhandle Research, Extension and Education Center in Scottsbluff, said the region is facing one of its most difficult irrigation seasons on record.
“However, this year it’s probably going to be the worst year we’ve ever seen,” Stone said.
Stone said irrigation districts in the North Platte Project area are projecting only 30 to 40 days of canal water this year, compared to a typical 70 to 90 days.
“The three major irrigation districts are looking at putting water into the canal system on July first,” Stone said.
According to a recent University of Nebraska-Lincoln CropWatch report, irrigation districts across the Platte River Basin are facing mounting pressure because of below-average mountain snowpack and reduced reservoir storage. Lake McConaughy entered the season at roughly 51% capacity, nearly 30 percentage points below normal levels.
The report also noted that Farmers Irrigation District has warned producers about shortened irrigation seasons and uncertain water deliveries this year.
Stone estimated roughly 100,000 to 150,000 acres in the region rely solely on surface water irrigation without backup wells.
“So yeah, for those growers, it’s going to be tough,” Stone said.
The uncertainty has left producers evaluating alternative crops and forage options that require less water.
“So forage crops is what they’re looking at,” Stone said. “Sorghum sudangrass being the top one.”
Groskopf said the economic impacts are already spreading beyond the farm gate.
“It’s going to be catastrophic to our community,” Groskopf said. “You talk to people in the fertilizer and chemical business and they’re sending people home, and you talk to the seed people and they’re down significantly and implement dealers the same way.”
He said agriculture remains one of the primary economic drivers in the Scottsbluff area alongside health care.
While drought cycles are familiar in western Nebraska, Groskopf said the current conditions are unlike anything his family has experienced.
“He has never seen anything like this,” Groskopf said of his father. “Probably like the old guys that have passed away, you know, that made it through the twenties and thirties, that they probably seen something like this. But he has never seen anything like this in his lifetime.”
Groskopf said his biggest concern is the long-term sustainability of groundwater and rural communities in the region.
“My biggest concern is just for our domestic wells and things like that,” he said. “That we don’t pump so much that we don’t have a place to live anymore and we just ruin our way of life around here.”