Pasture & Rangeland Conditions Near Record Levels

It is the lowest US pasture and rangeland conditions in the 21st century.

"This breaks the record that was set just last year.  And previously our lowest spring pattern rangeland conditions occurred in the wake of the great 2012 drought in the Spring of 2013."

USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey says that's despite improvements in the condition ratings as of last weekend.

"Good to excellent ratings improving somewhat, from 18 to 22%.  We also saw a corresponding improvement in the very to poor ratings, going from 56 to 52% very poor to poor."

And while the improvement is noted,  Rippy says there is still "...a long way to go because the all time record for very poor poor ratings is not much above where we started this year; it's 59%.  That occurred for several weeks in late summer of 2012."

With several states still with at least 50% very poor to poor pasture and rage land conditions.

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