U.S. and world wheat weather

Farm and Ranch December 10, 2010 The USDA says the thin winter wheat stands on portions of the central and southern Plains contrasts with the well established, snow covered crop in the northern Plains and Northwest. USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey says the situation in the Plains is not getting any better and may not.

Rippey: “We went into dormancy with a poorly established crop in some areas and that pertains to eastern Colorado, parts of western Kansas, even stretching up into Nebraska and a good bit of Texas outside of the northern panhandle. Even a few pockets in Oklahoma.”

Those areas are just too dry, and there is no snow cover in the Plains south of South Dakota.

Elsewhere in the world the USDA says excessively wet weather continues to hamper the wheat harvest in eastern Australia causing further declines in crop quality though the Australian government is forecasting record production volume.

In the western Former Soviet Union region cold weather has ended the growing season in the south while adequate snow cover protects winter wheat from bitter cold in the north.

The USDA says dry weather has continued across China’s northern plain where higher than normal temperatures increased water usage. Temperatures have now dropped there and the wheat has entered dormancy.

One new area of developing drought is the Middle East. The USDA says southeastern Turkey into Iran has had a protracted dry spell with above normal temperatures. Some wildfires have even been seen in the region.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net.

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