USDA: National Wheat Picture Mostly Positive

USDA Meteorologist Brad Rippey has some good news when it comes to this year's winter wheat condition.

"Actually saw a little bump, an up-tick, for the condition in the week ending April 7th, now at 60% good-to-excellent, up four points from last week. And double what we saw in acreage this time a year ago, just 30% of the winter wheat was rated good-to-excellent."

The news is not all good, however, 9% of the wheat crop is very poor-to-poor, unchanged from last week.  And while that's not great, it is much improved compared to last year's 35% very poor-to-poor.  Rippey said the tough and brutal winter will also have a huge impact on the national wheat crop.

"We are watching states like Michigan and also Ohio at 26% very poor-to-poor, unchanged from last week, as perhaps we're seeing signs that there may have been some irreversible damage done during some of those harsh cold spells in the winter, without the benefit of snow cover."