Winter Wheat Progressing Slowly Nationally

It's not just spring wheat that's starting the 2019 season slowly.  USDA Meteorologist Brad Rippey said progress is slow when looking at winter wheat heading.

“Just 29% of the crop heading out by May 5^th. That actually works to the advantage of producers as we did see frost last week down in to the central high plans including northeastern Kansas,” said Rippey.  “So behind schedule progress not necessarily a bad thing in this case.”

That compares to the five-year average of 41% headed.

“The glimmer of good news in all this is that with all the moisture around we do see a very healthy overall winter wheat crop that is just like last week 64% good to excellent and just 8% very poor to poor.”

How does that compares to the winter wheat condition last year?  2018's crops was impacted by drought, especially in the central and southern plains, where it was just 34% good to excellent and 37% very poor to poor in early May.

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