US: WINTER WHEAT CROP IN SLIGHTLY BETTER CONDITION

Nearly half of the U.S. winter wheat crop is in drought but its condition improved slightly in the past week, said the USDA on Tuesday. The weekly Crop Progress report also showed growers in the upper Midwest were rushing through corn and soybean planting after a slow start due to cold and wet weather.

Some 34% of winter wheat was in good or excellent condition at the start of the week, said the USDA report, an increase of 3 percentage points from last week, following rains in the southern Plains. In Kansas, the No. 1 winter wheat state, 10% of the crop was rated as good or excellent and 69 percent was in “poor” or “very poor” condition.

North Dakota farmers planted 40% of their corn land last week and were even with the five-year average with 72% of the crop now in the ground, said the USDA. Minnesota and North Dakota growers each planted one-third of the soybean crop last week and South Dakota farmers planted 25%  of their soybeans.

This article has been republished from The Successful Farming