Douglas County farmer Lowell Neitzel, 38, examines a field of corn south of the Lawrence Municipal Airport, on May 30, 2019. Just like corn producers across the state, Neitzel is facing tough conditions, including too much rain and cool temperatures.

Scouting a field of corn, Lowell Neitzel knelt down and gently turned over a tattered leaf of a plant as dark clouds were building in the northwest Thursday afternoon.

In the field south of the Lawrence Municipal Airport was some of the first corn he had planted a month and a half ago, and it barely skimmed the tall farmer’s ankles.

“If we had a normal season, the corn would be knee tall,” Neitzel said.

But it’s not a normal season; weeks of rain, cloudy days and cooler temperatures have stalled the corn’s growth. A severe storm system plowed through the area May 28, producing an EF-4 tornado that left more than 30 miles of damage in Douglas and Leavenworth counties. While his farm was spared, Neitzel and his farming partners had been busy helping to clear debris at the farmsteads of neighbors.

Kansas and the Midwest generally have been pummeled by damaging weather this spring. Compounded by trade tariffs and low commodity prices, it’s a tough time for those in the agricultural field.

U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran recently wrote to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, pointing out the damage the trade war was having on Kansas farmers and ranchers.

“Net farm income has fallen by 50% since 2013 and the trade war has pushed commodity prices down even further. Many farmers and ranchers are on the verge of financial collapse,” Moran wrote.

Those are the things that keep Neitzel, 38, awake at night.

“We have to make it work,” said Neitzel, who with his wife, Krystale, came back to her family farming corporation Nunemaker-Ross Inc., 16 years ago. Neitzel began as an employee on the farm, which produces corn, soybeans and hay and operates a small feedlot. Six years ago the Nunemaker-Ross family began a succession plan with Kent and Debbie, Lyle and Shelly Nunemaker, and Neitzel and Krystale taking over Mary and Pat Ross’ part of the farm business as they begin retirement.

“I worry all the time,” Neitzel said. “I worry, do we have things in place to be successful this year? What’s the yield going to be on this harvest? Should I market our grain early?” he said. “What really sucks is when you contract at a lower price and at harvest it’s 30 or 40 cents higher.”

Although they usually just sell some of their projected bushels on contract at a set price ahead of harvest, Neitzel said, because of the volatility of the market they decided to wait.

The ongoing trade war with China has him worried, though he’s more concerned about the North American Free Trade Agreement — now known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement — because Mexico is the No. 1 buyer of U.S. corn.

Neitzel says being on the verge of a financial crisis is always at the back of his mind.

“You always have to worry about the what-ifs,” he said.

There are things he and his partners could do to add to their income, such as custom farming or selling some of their hay. But, he quickly adds, no one who has a bad year after bad year can make it.

“You can’t work and not have a profit; the business model doesn’t support that,” Neitzel said.

Born to work the land

“I always wanted to be a farmer,” said Neitzel, who grew up on a 1,500-acre wheat, sunflower and corn farm 10 miles from the Colorado border in Cheyenne County. The expectation was that Neitzel would always take over his family’s farm.

That changed while he was a student at Colby Community College. He met Krystale Nunemaker, a farm girl from eastern Kansas.

While his family farm was experiencing a severe drought at the time, Krystale was always talking about how green it was on her side of the state and how it always rained.

During breaks in school and summer months, he would return home and work on the dryland farm. He felt a burden to take over farming from his father. However, there was more opportunity in Douglas County, where Krystale’s parents wanted to keep their farm going.

Neitzel and Krystale were married in 2002. While both parents wanted them to return to their farms, they spent a brief stint working in Oswego in southeast Kansas. They eventually returned to the Nunemaker farm.

“Dad took it kind of hard,” Neitzel said. “He understood there was a better opportunity for me here.”

His father eventually sold the farming operation before his death in 2017.

Neitzel sometimes wonders how his life would have been different had he and Krystale chosen to take the other road. While he would have been his own boss, he wouldn’t have had the sounding board he has today when it comes to making decisions that impact the farming operation.

“I have a lot of knowledgeable people around me, and we look at all the angles,” Neitzel said.

Busy season

Neitzel and his in-laws farm ground on both sides of the Kansas River. They share equipment, labor and office space just outside of North Lawrence.

“This is such a crazy spring; there are so many things out of my control,” Neitzel said.

While all their corn is in the ground, some of it was planted in mud.

“The conditions were not ideal, but it’s coming up,” he said.

Only one-tenth of their soybeans are planted. If the sun comes out and dries the ground, he thinks they can start planting any day, once the debris from the tornado is cleared off their fields.

Talking with farmers around the state, Sue Schulte, director of communications with the Kansas Corn Growers Association, said everybody was facing tough conditions, with rain, flooding and cooler temperatures affecting corn growth.

“It likes sunshine and warmer weather, and what I have been hearing is a lot of corn is sitting in the mud,” Schulte said. “It’s not a happy crop right now. If we get warmer temperatures and drying, it will start to grow. There is a lot of concern for yield loss at this point because it didn’t get a good start.”

Schulte couldn’t single out one part of the state where farmers weren’t struggling.

“Nobody is in great shape right now,” Schulte said.

As the dark clouds moved closer and the wind picked up, Neitzel realized any hope for the fields drying Thursday were dashed.

“I think this rain will hit us. Why wouldn’t it? We haven’t missed any of the others,” Neitzel said, looking up at the sky as the first drops fell.

“There are some years you can’t buy rain, and there are other years when you can’t buy dry weather,” he said.