The USDA is out with its first winter wheat condition report of the season.​

"We see, first of all a bit of a rarity for winter wheat, and that is the overall national conditions improved over the winter," said USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey. "That is somewhat unusual in that we often see conditions declining between late November and early April. But this year we saw an improvement in overall condition."

Rippey also noted as this crop entered dormancy last fall, "we saw the crop was rate 46% good to excellent. The number today: 53% good to excellent, so a nice jump in the good to excellent ratings. And we saw a corresponding decrease in very poor to poor rating since last fall. That is still the lowest rated wheat crop that we've seen since the spring of 2018, three years ago."

The lowest winter wheat ratings are in Colorado and Texas.

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