News

34% of winter wheat in good to excellent condition

In the first national weekly crop progress update of the year, USDA reports the winter wheat crop is in much worse condition than it was a year ago.

As of Sunday, overall, 5% of the crop is rated excellent, 29% is good, 36% is called fair, 20% is in poor shape, and 10% is in very poor condition. This time last year, 12% of winter wheat was excellent, 46% was good, 30% was fair, 9% was poor, and 3% was very poor.

16% of sorghum is planted, steady with both this time last year and the five year average.

For rice, 12% is planted, compared to 14% a year ago and 11% on average.

32% of oats are planted, compared to 44% last year and 34% on average.

National weekly crop progress numbers are scheduled to be out every Monday except holidays at 4 Eastern/3 Central until late November.