Rippey Much Of The Winter Wheat Acres Are Under Drought

This is the first week of October, which means we’re well into fall panting for winter wheat across the country.

“As we start October, 44% of the winter wheat production area in the United States is in drought," said USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey.  "That's actually down a little bit from the beginning of September, [which sat at] 52%.  That improvement is largely due to drought easing or eradicating rains that occurred in the lower Midwest and in the mid-South."

Rippey added while the drought number kicking off October is an improvement, 44% is still quite high.

"And it does include some of our key production areas across the Great Plains and Northwest so that is something we'll have to continue to watch in the coming months as this crop becomes established then goes dormant and begins to grow again next spring,” Rippey said.

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