U.S. winter wheat update
Farm and Ranch December 30, 2010 As La Nina continues to bring moisture to winter wheat areas of the Pacific Northwest, it also is keeping other wheat regions of the U.S. dry. That includes the central and southern Plains and areas of the southeast. USDA meteorologist Eric Luebehusen says there was a little moisture for those areas the past few days, but; Luebehusen: “Not enough to do the trick. They need much more rain than this. And when you head over to the plains we are dealing with concerns with winter wheat establishment. We had drier than normal fall conditions and consequently the wheat was not as well established as we would like it to be as we head into the dormancy period. We are also seeing what we would term as large temperature swings.” Which can further stress a wheat crop that is not in good shape. Some areas of the south-central U.S. saw 80 degree plus temperatures last week. The northern Plains have good snow cover but further south some of the wheat is bare, though snow may come ahead of some cold temperatures that could hit yet this week. As for just how much winter wheat U.S. farmers planted last fall, we will get USDA’s first estimate on that in a few weeks, on January 12th. Of course what gets planted, does not always get harvested. A battle for acres this spring could mean areas that can grow corn and soybeans could see poor winter wheat stands taken out and planted to row crops. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net. ?
