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With drying conditions reported across a fair portion of the country, what impact has that had on winter wheat?

"We see 5% of the U.S. winter wheat headed on that date," noted USDA Meteorologist, Brad Rippey. "The April 11th Average is 7%; last year 6% headed. We see Texas leading the way."

The only other state in double-digit heading progress is Arkansas, which is well behind the five year average.

"We do see a little bit of heading as far north as the lower mid-west with 3% of the winter wheat headed on April 11th in Illinois and Missouri."

Meanwhile, Rippey said condition ratings for winter wheat have not changed much in the past week.

"For the second week in a row we see 53% of the crop rated in good to excellent condition. We did see a 1 point increase in the very poor to poor rating; up to 17% from last week's 16% . This crop starting off the year a little bit worse shape than the winter wheat crop of 2020."

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