The following article is from Bloomberg:
Kansas Winter-Wheat Crop Conditions Improve; Texas Worsens
By Whitney McFerron
Winter-wheat conditions in Kansas improved last week after “modest rainfall,” while crops in Texas and Oklahoma deteriorated, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.
About 27 percent of the crop in Kansas, the biggest U.S. winter-wheat grower, was in good or excellent condition as of yesterday, up from 26 percent a week earlier, the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service said today in a report on its website. More than an inch of rain fell in some southeast and east-central parts of the state, while western areas received “little to no moisture,” the USDA said.
“Dry conditions continue throughout many areas of Kansas as modest rainfall was short of the much needed moisture last week,” according to the USDA office in Topeka.
In Texas, 14 percent of plants got the top ratings, down from 18 percent a week earlier, the USDA said. Oklahoma’s crops were rated 24 percent good or excellent, down from 27 percent a week earlier. Those states were the second and third biggest U.S. winter-wheat growers last year.
About 50 percent of hard-red winter-wheat growing areas in the southern U.S. Great Plains have had less than half of the normal amount of rainfall in the past 30 days, said Mike Tannura, the president of T-Storm Weather LLC in Chicago. Most regions will remain dry for the next seven to 10 days, he said.
‘Stormy Weather’
“While the central U.S. will have a stormy weather pattern through the end of March, most of those storm systems likely are going to bypass the hard-red winter-wheat belt, especially the driest areas,” Tannura said. “Most of the precipitation will fall to the north and east of these areas, leaving things similarly dry heading into early April.”
Wheat futures for May delivery fell 2 cents, or 0.3 percent, to settle at $7.21 a bushel at 1:15 p.m. today on the Chicago Board of Trade. Earlier, the grain climbed as much as 2.6 percent on speculation that dry weather in the U.S. Great Plains and floods in northern growing areas would erode crops.
To contact the reporter on this story: Whitney McFerron in Chicago at wmcferron1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Stroth at sstroth@bloomberg.net.
Source: Bloomberg
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