10/19/05 Winter wheat seeding update

Farm and Ranch October 19, 2005 On a national basis, the planting of the U.S. winter wheat crop has been mostly on schedule. Brad Rippey, USDA meteorologist, has the latest numbers from the Weekly Crop Progress report. Rippey: "Now 78% complete. Five-year average for October 16th is 77% on winter wheat planting. And winter wheat emergence now reaching the halfway mark. The five-year average is 52%." But Rippey says there are delays in emergence across the Pacific Northwest. Rippey: "Particularly in Washington where some producers waited for rain in late September, early October, to plant. Just 48% emerged. Five-year average is 79% there. Also dryness remains a concern in the subsoils there." Seeding of winter wheat in Washington was about eight percent behind the five-year average for this time of year at the start of this week at 87 percent complete. Oregon began this week with 48 percent of its winter wheat in the ground which compares to the five-year average for now of 61 percent. Sixteen percent of the Oregon crop has emerged Winter wheat planting in Idaho is now 82 percent complete, five points behind average and one-third of the wheat has emerged. In Washington 85 percent of the potato harvest is done. Idaho has harvested 72 percent of its spud crop, 16 points behind the average. Harvesting of the U.S. corn crop was approaching the halfway mark at the beginning of this week which put it just slightly ahead of the average pace. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.