01/26/06 A winter wheat crop update

Farm and Ranch January 26, 2006 This time of year only one state reports winter wheat condition ratings. That's Texas and USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey says the ratings there are not good. Rippey: "Eighty-five percent of the winter wheat is rated very poor to poor. That is just indicative of how dry it's been." While some areas in the northwest were setting rainfall and rainy day records, in Texas records for days without precipitation were broken. Rippey: "Up through January 24 that streak has now reached 89 days in Lubbock and west Texas. The old record was set way back in 1921-22, 85 days." The dryness in the southern Plains hard red winter wheat belt has been a supportive factor for futures prices and traders are watching the crop there closely. There is a chance for some precipitation late this week but it could miss some of the driest areas. As for the winter wheat crop elsewhere in the Plains; Rippey: "We've seen soil moisture reduction as far north as north as Nebraska and South Dakota but we are not seeing a great deal of stress on the crop yet. For one it's dormant still in the central Plains. And we still have some pretty good moisture reserves up into Montana so it is a situation that deteriorates the farther south you go and you really have to get down into Oklahoma and Texas to see a really bad situation." USDA says recent precipitation in the Pacific Northwest improved soil moisture for winter wheat and boosted high elevation snow pack. USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service recently reported U.S. farmers planted two percent more acres to winter wheat last fall than the previous year. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.