06/11/08 Rains improve PNW grains; hurt hay

Farm and Ranch June 11, 2008 The recent cool, rainy weather has not been good for Pacific Northwest hay growers with hay down or overdue for cutting. Quality is being hurt. However, the moisture has benefited winter wheat and spring grains. USDA crop condition ratings for this week showed improvement for winter and spring wheat in the region. USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey says nationally winter wheat ratings are stable. Rippey: "Forty-seven percent good to excellent, 22% very poor to poor. Last year at this time 52% and 20% respectively." We are hearing a lot about the excessive moisture in the Midwest and the corn crop. But soft red winter wheat, a competitor to Pacific Northwest soft white, is grown there too. One major producing state is Illinois where Extension agronomist Emerson Nafziger says cool, wet weather is turning hot. Emerson: "The sudden change from cool temperatures that is good for wheat as long as they get enough days of it, to very high temperatures is one that the wheat crop is probably not taking particularly well." Of course in the southern plains the winter wheat harvest is underway and USDA reported that at the start of this week nine percent of the U.S. crop had been harvested, just a point behind the five year average for now. The U.S. corn crop saw a decline in ratings from a week ago. It is now 60 percent good to excellent, which compares to last year at this time of 77 percent good to excellent. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.