07/18/06 Spring wheat ratings drop further

Farm and Ranch July 18, 2006 The deterioration of the U.S. spring wheat crop, particularly in the northern Plains continued last week. USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey has the latest from the department's weekly crop progress report. Rippey: "The spring wheat crop, which has been hit very hard by heat and dryness, those areas did not benefit from much if any rainfall last week so the crop continues to rush ahead at the expense of grain fill potential. Spring wheat headed 97 percent on July 16th. Five year average is just 86 percent. And in terms of crop condition for spring wheat it continues to decline rapidly over the last several weeks now just 34% of the crop rated good to excellent, 32% very poor to poor." A year ago at this time only six percent of the spring wheat crop was very poor to poor and 75 percent was in good to excellent condition. While 80 percent of the U.S. winter wheat harvest has been completed cutting is just getting underway in the Pacific Northwest. Oregon has harvested seven percent of its winter wheat, Washington three percent and Idaho two percent. That's on par for the five year average in Idaho but Oregon and Washington are behind the usual pace for this time. Harvest is expected to expand rapidly with warm weather this week. The condition of the U.S. corn crop didn't change much from a week ago and at 62 percent good to excellent it's a few points better than last year at this time. Fifty-one percent of the crop is silking and six percent is in the dough stage. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.