Fall Harvest in Nebraska December 7, 2014 In late November 2014, cold and dry conditions brought the end of fall harvest activities in Nebraska. More than 45 million acres of farms across the state produce corn, soybeans, hay, wheat, beans, potatoes, sorghum, and small grains. In the south-central part of the state, the Platte River forms an important agricultural corridor, as shown here in images acquired by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8. Turn on the image comparison tool to see how the fields changed during the fall harvest. The top image was acquired on September 8, 2014, prior to most harvesting. Green circles and squares are fields with actively growing crops. The bottom image was acquired on October 26, 2014. By this time, the USDA reported that the soybean harvest was near completion and farmers had turned their attention to corn. Brown areas indicate bare ground. Some crops, however, do not follow a fall harvest timeline, as evidenced by the patch of bright green fields on the right side of the image. According to Jessica McCarty of the Michigan Tech Research Institute, a few of the green fields could be potatoes, which are planted in spring, summer, and fall. Almost all of them, however, are winter wheat. References and Further Reading 2013 State Agriculture Overview (2013) Nebraska. Accessed December 5, 2014. University of Nebraska-Lincoln (2014, December 5) CropWatch. Accessed December 5, 2014. USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (2014) Nebraska Crop Progress and Condition. Accessed December 5, 2014. USGS Landsat Missions (2014, November 12) U.S. Harvest Nears Completion. Accessed December 5, 2014. NASA Earth Observatory images by Jesse Allen, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Caption by Kathryn Hansen. Instrument(s): Landsat 8 - OLI
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 13:53:39 +0000
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