Cold Weather Has Negatively Impacted U.S. Wheat

A mid-April cold wave took its toll on winter wheat.

"First of all I want to take a look at the winter wheat heading numbers, that’s real important when looking at some of the vulnerable acreage," said USDA meterologist Brad Rippey. "And nationally 14% of the U.S. winter wheat acreage headed by April 19^th that’s one point behind the five-year average, but well ahead of where we were a year ago at this time and just 8% of the crop had headed.

Rippey noted when looking at production across the central and southern great plains, there were bi increases in heading acreage, with the fastest progress occurring in Texas and Oklahoma, two of the states that also showed large declines in the condition.

"Nationally, the good to excellent ratings for winter wheat down quite a bit from last week 57% is the current number, last week we were at 62% good to excellent," Rippey continued. "We’re also seeing an increase in the very poor to poor rating; up to 13% from just 10% a week ago."

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