04/17/07 More deterioration in winter wheat ratings nationally

Farm and Ranch April 17, 2007 In its new weekly crop weather report this week the USDA says damage to the winter wheat crop in the central and Midwestern U.S. is becoming more apparent. USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey says crop ratings have fallen again. Rippey: "With the winter wheat crop jointing to heading stage wheat hit by temperatures in the teens and 20s on April 7th & 8th and that has dragged down the national good to excellent number to 55%. That is down from 64% a week ago and 71% two weeks ago." And Rippey says the percent of the crop at the low end of the rating category has increased. Rippey: "Now the percentage of very poor to poor wheat has gone in the opposite direction. Going from six percent to 10 percent now to 17 percent during the last two week period from April 1st to the 8th to the 15th." Rippey says keep in mind however that the rating of April 15th was still better than it was one year ago at this time. The good to excellent rating on April 15th 2006 was at 39 percent. In the PNW winter wheat ratings dropped a little in Idaho and Washington. Eighty-seven percent of Idaho's crop is in good to excellent condition with 73 percent of Washington's getting that rating. Oregon's winter wheat again showed improvement with 93 percent of its crop rated good to excellent. Both U.S. spring wheat and corn plantings are running behind the normal pace for now with six percent of spring wheat in the ground and four percent of the corn. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network