A freeze, now a warm up for Southern Plains wheat

Farm and Ranch April 8, 2009 The futures market did not seem to get too excited about the freezing temperatures some of the winter wheat in the Southern Plains went through this week. Some market analyst think traders thought the drought has already hurt that crop so a freeze is no big deal. USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey says the hard red winter wheat in the effected areas was vulnerable though. Rippey: "Just to put it into perspective here, the winter wheat crop is largely jointing, or has jointed across Oklahoma. The state figure is 84%. As you head down to Texas we see nearly a quarter of the crop is headed out. So that crop in Texas that is now heading is highly vulnerable to the freeze." Rippey says growers may soon be able to assess any damage. Rippey: "There is going to be a rapid warming trend for the middle of the week and so by the end of the week maybe producers have a little bit better handle on how much damage has occurred from these cold waves that have followed that big March 26-28th snow storm." Meanwhile up north, in some of the spring wheat country, flooding and planting delays are still a concern in the Red River Valley of North Dakota. Rippey says the river has been falling but; Rippey: "That fall is going to reverse this weekend and it looks like it is going to be heading back up. And with some snow melt expected, a lot of moisture frozen in the soil column, and also ice in the fields that has been frozen in place by the cold weather we have been seeing, all those reasons and more adding to a second and major crest." In the Northwest what had been cool, wet conditions put spring cereal planting progress behind five-year averages. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.