05/07/08 Winter wheat could use a drink

Farm and Ranch May 7, 2008 Weekly Crop Weather Bulletins from around the Pacific Northwest this week suggest several winter wheat growing areas are getting dry and could use some rain to make a normal crop. Some spring wheat too. Compared to last week, the USDA's winter wheat crop condition ratings didn't change much in Idaho and Washington but Oregon saw its good to excellent rating fall from 26 percent to 19 percent and the percentage of the winter wheat in poor condition jump from five percent to 35 percent. Sandy McNab with Sherman County Extension in Oregon says moisture and warmer weather would be welcome there. McNab: "They are definitely short on moisture. A lot of plants were damaged from the cold evenings we have had here lately. In fact the month of April our average temperature was almost five degrees below normal. And that's a dramatic decrease. A lot of our ills could be cured by a week or two of some warm weather in the 70-75 range and a couple three inches at ½ inch a day of warm rain would be real nice." Drier weather did help northwest growers make progress on spring wheat seeding. In Oregon 96 percent of spring wheat has been sown, in Idaho 69 percent, ten points behind average and in Washington 75 percent of spring has been planted, 19 points behind average for now. Nationally 58 percent of the spring wheat crop has been planted, only four points behind the average pace for this time. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.