Rippey: Spring Wheat Crop Shows Slight Improvement

Spring wheat growers have received little good news this year. USDA Meteorologist Brad Rippey, said things are actually looking slightly better this week.

"Now the spring wheat condition has bounced back marginally the last two weeks," Rippey said. "But that does not mask the fact that this has been a terrible year for spring wheat. Just 11% of the crop rated good to excellent. That's a one point improvement from last week. 61% very poor to poor. Again a very small improvement from last week's 64%"

Rippey noted when looking at 2020 numbers, when the crop was pretty decent, 69% of the spring wheat crop nationwide was rated good to excellent and just 7% very poor to poor. And it should come as no surprise, northwest growers continue to struggle.

"And truly remarkable to see Washington state coming in this week with 93% of the spring wheat rated in very poor to poor condition"

Rippey added the drought is also impacting other small grains like barley where conditions are "abysmal" compared to the same time last year.

If you have a story idea for the PNW Ag Network, call (509) 547-1618, or e-mail gvaagen@cherrycreekmedia.com