While dealers, farmers and residents in the southeast begin the recovery process from damages from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, dealers and farmers in the High Plains are dealing with a completely different challenge. 

Drought conditions paired with high winds are causing an increased fire threat.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, the majority of the High Plains are in some level of drought. In Nebraska, 37% of corn production is being affected by severe drought as of Oct. 8. When you look at spring wheat, 100% of production is being affected by severe drought. 

Greg Meints, sales manager for AGCO dealer Wells Implement in Plymouth, Neb., and a volunteer firefighter, says last Saturday parts of Nebraska saw a number of good size fires that were hard to stop because of the high winds. The best way to combat the fires is tillage, he says, but in an area with a large no-till adoption that isn’t always a welcome solution. 

He says as a preventative measure, discs were being placed near fields to have on hand should a fire spark. He’s also heard of some farmers attaching sprayer tanks and pumps to their grain carts to have water at the ready and close to the combine in case of a fire. 

Meints says temperatures are expected to drop to the 60s in the next week, which should help reduce the risk of fire. 

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