National Drought Already Impacting National Wheat Crop

How has the national drought impacted the country's winter wheat crop?

"Last year's winter wheat crop, the one planted in the fall of 2020 and harvested in 2021, a lot of that crop made it through before the drought got intense across the great plains."

USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey said drought then settled into places like Montana and the Dakota's.

"That really hit some of those spring wheat crops, durum, barley and so forth.  But unfortunately, the drought spread as we headed into the winter wheat planting season in the fall of 2021 and that lead to a much more wide-spread problem than what we saw earlier in the summer.  As the drought not only continued in the north, but expanded into some of the southern production areas.

"[It's] worst drought we've seen in this region in about a decade and we've still got a long way to go to try to turn the corner.  Spring rains will be imperative in helping to improve this crop."

If you have a story idea for the PNW Ag Network, call (509) 547-1618, or e-mail gvaagen@cherrycreekmedia.com