First winter wheat crop ratings of the fall

Farm and Ranch October 25, 2011 The USDA has issued its first condition ratings of the season for the 2012 U.S. winter wheat crop.

Rippey: “We start of this year about where we were at last year.”

USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey. He says surveys show that 47 percent of the winter wheat that is up, is in good to excellent shape. That is the same as this time last year. Then at the lower end of the condition ratings.

Rippey: “Sixteen percent of the crop rated very poor to poor. Last year that number was 14%. So as we jump out of the box, similar numbers.”

Rippey says those numbers are a little misleading given the wheat in Texas.

Rippey: “Fifty percent, half the crop, rated poor to very poor to poor.”

Last year the winter wheat crop in Texas was not rated that bad until way into January. And of course there are issues in Oklahoma and parts of Kansas too.

The first ratings for the winter wheat in the Pacific Northwest are generally much better than those nationally. Idaho’s crop is 88 percent good to excellent; Washington’s 69 percent and Oregon’s fifty two percent. Just Idaho has one percent listed as poor.

USDA says 82 percent of the U.S. winter wheat crop has been planted with emergence at 56 percent. The five year average for emergence is 63 percent. Oregon growers have the most winter wheat left to plant in the PNW, about 20 percent of the crop still to be seeded.

The U.S. corn harvest at 65 percent complete is well ahead of the five year average pace for now.

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

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