U.S. winter wheat progress

Farm and Ranch October 21, 2009 Recent moisture helped winter wheat in areas of the Pacific Northwest but weekly Crop Weather reports say areas in Washington and Oregon need more. Meanwhile USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey says wet conditions have slowed planting elsewhere in the U.S.

Rippey: “That has slowed down the progress on the planting, which has now reached 69% nationally. That’s fallen nine points behind the five year average pace. Planting is nearly complete across much of the northwest but we do see some lags across the plains now and also in the Midwest. Illinois where some of that wheat goes in behind double-cropped soybeans, only 13% planted. Five year average planting pace for wheat in Illinois should be 67%. Wheat emergence slowed somewhat by cool weather now reaching 48%. Five year average on winter wheat emergence is 54%.”

Winter wheat emergence in the Pacific Northwest is running ahead of the five year average with 72 percent of the crop up in Washington, 48 percent in Idaho and 43 percent emerged in Oregon.

Washington and Idaho issued crop ratings for their winter wheat this week. Most of Idaho’s winter wheat is in good to excellent condition while the majority of Washington’s dryland wheat is rated fair to good.

Of course the market’s focus has been on the slow harvest of the corn crop and USDA’s Rippey says not much progress was made this past week.

Rippey: “Again the corn harvest crept ahead four points in the last week to reach 17%. We should be approaching the half-way mark. Forty-six percent is the five year average.”

I’m Bob Hoff on the Northwest Ag Information Network.