As Plain's drought ends keep eye on upper Midwest flooding

Farm and Ranch March 26, 2009 Recent and continued rains in the Southern and Central U.S. Plains has wheat market observers saying the drought is over for the hard red winter wheat crop. The exception being the Panhandle of Texas, but that is not now seen as sufficient to impact the futures market. Where might the next U.S. weather problem be for wheat? Victor: "If there is a hot spot. I should call it a wet spot, this year, keep your eye on that tri-state area, North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota." Joe Victor of Allendale Incorporated, who says the excessive moisture could lead to planting delays this spring. Victor: "And where we are getting concerned, and that is primarily in North Dakota, spring wheat, durum wheat country, as well as South Dakota as well as western Minnesota. Give you some statistics for North Dakota a year ago March 1st had 5.3 inches of snow cover. They are at 16.9 inches. There is probably more since the last storm. The 30 day outlook from the Climate Prediction Center, an unbiased forecaster, suggesting colder than usual, wetter than usual conditions for North Dakota, parts of South Dakota, Minnesota." Victor says some reputable private weather forecasters are calling for colder than normal and wetter than normal conditions in North Dakota all the way to June. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.