Wheat Producing Areas Continue To Battle Drought

"Presently, we do have drought in all three of the nation's major where we production areas.  The white winter wheat in the Northwest the hard red winter wheat across the Great Plains and the soft red winter wheat it's grown from the mid-South into the lower Midwest.”

Yet USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey said as growers look at winter weather in the coming months.

“Prospects are certainly improving for northwestern winter wheat over the last few days and we expect that to continue for the next few weeks and perhaps all the way through the winter."

But, Rippey pointed out, the outlook is not as optimistic in the Great Plains.

“We may start seeing some relief across the northern Plains but some of the biggest winner wheat production areas across the central and southern Great Plains could potentially remain very dry into the spring."

Rippey noted this comes at a time when emergence has been difficult.

“And if warmth and drought were to continue from say Nebraska or Kansas and Colorado southward that could lead to implications for another poor winter wheat crop because so much of the crop is grown across the central and southern great plains," Rippey continued.

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