The seasonal return of the US Department of Agriculture’s weekly national Crop Progress report revealed the condition of the US winter wheat crop deteriorated over the months of dormancy since the report went into hibernation last fall.
The USDA on April 3 issued its first national Crop Progress report since Nov. 27, 2022. The report compiles information some state USDA offices had started issuing a few weeks earlier with new data for a comprehensive report for the 18 major winter wheat growing states. Winter wheat, which was seeded last fall for harvest in 2023, conditions were in worse shape than in the final report of 2022 (for the 2023 crop) and compared with the 2022 US crop as it emerged from dormancy a year earlier.
The USDA on April 3 issued its first national Crop Progress report since Nov. 27, 2022. The report compiles information some state USDA offices had started issuing a few weeks earlier with new data for a comprehensive report for the 18 major winter wheat growing states. Winter wheat, which was seeded last fall for harvest in 2023, conditions were in worse shape than in the final report of 2022 (for the 2023 crop) and compared with the 2022 US crop as it emerged from dormancy a year earlier.
The USDA rated winter wheat as of April 2 at 3% excellent, 25% good, 36% fair, 20% poor and 16% very poor. The combined 28% good-to-excellent rating compared with 34% in the week ended Nov. 27 and with a 30% rating on the 2022 crop a year earlier.
Echoing the indications from the US Drought Monitor, hard red winter wheat growing areas of the northern, central and southern Plains fared the worst over the winter, adding some fundamental confirmation of drought’s effect on the crop. Good-to-excellent ratings were 16% in Kansas (22% on Nov. 27), 26% in Oklahoma (31%), 18% in Texas (21%), 27% in Colorado (30%), 22% in Nebraska (20%), 23% in South Dakota (27%) and 24% in Montana (44%).
“This has become a fairly sizable concern for wheat and we need precipitation or we have the potential to have a crop with yields as small as last year,” said Bill Lapp, owner of Advanced Economic Solutions, Omaha, Neb. “The epicenter of dryness is in the vicinity of Liberal, Kan., and then drought circles around there down into Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, 100 miles in every direction in a vitally important area for wheat production.”
Source: foodbusinessnews.net
Photo Credit: GettyImages-ridvan_celik
Categories: Kansas, Crops, Wheat