Cold Midwest Weather Could Impact Winter Wheat Crop

It may be cold across the Northwest, but these temperatures are nothing like what our friends back east are dealing with right now.  The National Weather Service said multiple low-temperature records could be broken stretching from the upper Midwest to the east coast.  In addition, snow has fallen across the Gulf Coast, with locations like New Orleans receiving snow for the first time in over a decade. 

What impact could this extremely cold weather have on crops and commodities?

USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey said one of the biggest potential Ag implications is exposure of winter wheat to damaging levels of cold.  He said the concern in the Midwest is that a lot of the snow cover that had fallen earlier this winter has either eroded or melted away just prior to this artic blast.

“Now in areas where the crop is somewhat healthier and developed and was established pretty well, it should be able to withstand most of this cold.  But we do have concerns up and down the Plains where we had some pockets of poor establishment and uneven emergence," Rippey said.  "Those root systems are not as well developed and the crop could succumb to subzero temperatures in some cases.”

Rippey noted the USDA will watch those exposed areas where it intersects with the subzero temperatures, increasing the potential of winter kill.

"That would be true all the way from Montana southward into North Texas with that potential exposure situation," Rippey said.

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