Rippey: Planting Is Outpacing Emergence

When it comes to next year's winter wheat crop, the USDA says planting is complete in most areas with the exception of areas that are traditionally planted later, such as some stretches of the Northwest. According to USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey, 93% of winter wheat is in the ground nationally, slightly higher than the five-year average of 91%.

"If we look at the overall planting numbers versus the emergence numbers that's where you can continue to see some of the impacts of drought that has been effecting some of the production areas."

Rippey said Oregon continues to be impacted by drought conditions.

"[At this point] 98% of the crop is planted, the five-year average is 95% but as of November 8th just 49% of Oregon's wheat had emerged. Compared to the five-year average of 64%.

Rippey noted wheat conditions nationwide are looking good.

"We have seen a bit of an improvement overall since the first report a couple of weeks ago. At this point we're looking at the crop being 45% rated good to excellent that's up 2 percentage points from last week."

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