Hayes County, in Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Hayes County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Hayes County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Hayes County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hayes County — the short answer
Hayes County, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 456K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 456K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 6a is Hayes County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hayes County's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Hayes County
Across a year, Hayes County accumulates about 2,822 growing degree days above 50°F, about 18 fewer than the middle Nebraska county — ahead of 43 of Nebraska’s 93 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Hayes County
Across Hayes County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Sulco, Blackwood, and Sarben are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.7–7.9, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Hayes County
The USDA soil survey maps 93% of Hayes County as well drained — but another 8% drains differently: 7% excessively drained.
Sulco is the most extensive named soil at 32% of mapped acres, then Blackwood (18%) and Sarben (17%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Hayes County
Each reading below is measured for Hayes County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Hayes County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Hayes County runs about pH 6.7–7.9, on the alkaline side.
Many vegetables cope, but acid-lovers like blueberries struggle, and iron and manganese lock up above about pH 7.5 — leaves yellow between the veins even in rich soil.
Elemental sulfur and generous organic matter lower pH slowly for the beds that need it; test first so you add only what the soil actually calls for.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredHayes County runs about 185 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredHayes County sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Hayes County is in
Hayes County spans 3 EPA Level III ecoregions — Central Great Plains (51%), High Plains (35%) and Nebraska Sand Hills (14%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Hayes County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Hayes County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 185-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile.
Is it too late to plant in Hayes County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What gets applied to farmland in Hayes County
USGS estimates 199,992 lb of Glyphosate on Hayes County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (116,703 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (62,257 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Hayes County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Hayes County — 14 documented sites across 3 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 concentrated animal feeding operations. Large-scale animal operations that can contaminate soil and groundwater with nitrates and pathogens.
The federal record across Hayes County is light. Growing food here starts from a strong position — a quick pass over the map tells you whether any recorded site sits near your land, and if one does, that's information to plant with, not a reason to stop.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Hayes County
Closest first, across Hayes County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HAYES COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- US POSTAL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- 6N 33W 9AB 1Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- HAYES COUNTY CO-OPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- 6N 33W 9DB 1Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- GAS KEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- SOUTHWEST FEEDERS, INCCAFO · 6.1 mi
- 6N 31W34AAAD1Nitrate · 13.4 mi
- LACEY FARMS GPCAFO · 13.8 mi
- FLOYD GREELEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 14.6 mi
- SANDMAN GROW YARD, LLCCAFO · 16.1 mi
Measured from Hayes County's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Hayes County.
Total Sites
14
across Hayes County
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
3 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
across Hayes County
Severity Distribution
across Hayes County
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
Check your specific parcel in Hayes County
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hayes County average
Your land is one point inside Hayes County
Everything above resolves to Hayes County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 456K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at county scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better county average.
Your Lot vs the Hayes County Average
Hayes County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Hayes County
- ●One soil character for all of Hayes County
- ●Frost dates read at Hayes County's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hayes County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Hayes County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hayes County, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hayes County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hayes County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hayes County average
How we know this about Hayes County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Hayes County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Hayes County
When does frost risk typically end in Hayes County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hayes County typically lands around Apr 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about May 9.
How long is the growing season in Hayes County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hayes County sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 6, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hayes County?
The federal record around Hayes County is light — 14 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (6), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.2 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
Everything above is measured at Hayes County's scale — its 6a band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hayes County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Nebraska's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Hayes County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Hayes County's own scale — its own ~185-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 14 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hayes County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hayes County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Hayes CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 14 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Hayes County's boundary and the 456,361 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 3 ecoregions Hayes County spans, Central Great Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Hayes County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Nebraska grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Nebraska
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Hayes County — the ~185 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hayes County's 456,361 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 14 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Hayes Countyread your own land →