04/23/08 Winter wheat ratings and spring wheat seeding

Farm and Ranch April 23, 2008 There had been some expectations this week's winter wheat crop ratings from USDA would show some improvement over last week. But department meteorologist Brad Rippey says that nationally the ratings are slightly worse. Rippey: "We are looking at 45% of the crop rated good to excellent, 21% very poor to poor. A week ago those numbers were 47 and 20% respectively." Last year at this time only 54 percent of the winter wheat was in good to excellent condition with 21 percent in poor to very poor condition. Rippey: "So we are now looking now at a crop that is not much worse than last year despite all the adversity we have been facing." In Washington state Wheat Commissioner and seed dealer Dana Herron says some wheat in the Connell area was far enough along that it could have been hurt by the recent cold night time temperatures but he is more concerned about what slow crop development may mean down the road. Herron: "We are less than 50% of last year's growing degree days and that has very severe implications because Mother Nature has a way of catching up in a hurry in June. And I think our bigger worry in the wheat crop right now is very warm temperatures right during pollination." Nationally 20 percent of the spring wheat has been planted, just a few points behind normal but in Idaho and Washington seeding was 18 to 19 points behind average for now. As of Monday only four percent of the U.S. corn crop had been planted compared to the five year average of 17 percent. In major states like Iowa, no corn had been planted. Illinois was 28 points behind average. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.