Some improvement, some deterioration in PNW winter wheat ratings

Farm and Ranch April 21, 2009 Weekly USDA crop condition ratings for winter wheat show improvement in both Washington and Idaho but some deterioration in Oregon ratings. Idaho's winter wheat is rated 81 percent good to excellent, up a point from last week. Washington's crop at 51 percent good to excellent is up three points, but Oregon's 31 percent good to excellent rating is a drop of six points in that category from a week ago. Twenty-two percent of Oregon's winter wheat is now poor to very poor compared to 14 percent last week. USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey says nationally winter wheat ratings are slightly better. Rippey: "43% good to excellent. 27% very poor to poor. Last week those numbers were 42and 25% respectively. Last year at this time fairly similar with 45% of the crop rated good to excellent, 21% very poor to poor this time in 2008." Rippey says very poor to poor ratings jumped in Oklahoma and Texas from recent freeze damage. Stripe rust has appeared in some Pacific Northwest winter wheat. Xianming Chen with the Agricultural Research Service at Pullman says the disease was found last week in three fields in the Horse Heaven Hills of Washington. One variety was unknown but two were Finley and Finley Clearfield. Chen says growers in the area should check their fields in the next two weeks, especially lower leaves, and fungicides may be applied if rust develops to five to ten percent incidence. Stripe rust has also shown up in a nursery near Walla Walla and Chen says growers there should also check their fields if a susceptible winter wheat variety is being grown. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.