USDA's weekly winter wheat ratings resume

Thursday Apr 7th, 2011 67 Views Farm of the Future

Farm and Ranch April 7, 2011 The USDA this week resumed its weekly reporting of crop conditions including ratings on the nation’s winter wheat crop.

USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey says states with winter wheat in the best shape include those in the Pacific Northwest.

Rippey: “More than 80% of the crop is rated good to excellent in several states including California, Idaho, North Carolina and Washington State.”

Winter wheat in Oregon was rated 67 percent good to excellent. Umatilla County Oregon reported stripe rust and soil borne mosaic virus. Several eastern Washington counties also reported stripe rust.

Rippey says the poorest rated winter wheat is in those dry areas of the central and southern plains.

Rippey: “61% of the crop rated in very poor to poor shape in Texas along with 53% in Oklahoma, 43% in Colorado and 34% in Kansas.”

And when you combine the good and the bad the overall rating for the U.S. winter wheat crop is 37 percent good to excellent and 32 percent very poor to poor.

Rippey: “If you compare that to last year it is much less favorable because at this time last year we started off the year 65% good to excellent and just 6% very poor to poor.”

Spring wheat planting in the PNW is running anywhere from seven to 20 points behind average with sowing 25 percent complete in Oregon, 16 percent done in Washington and seven percent planted in Idaho.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net.