03/16/05 Will rain save southern Plains wheat?

Farm and Ranch March 16, 2006 It's been a weather market in wheat futures as of late with prices moving up and down depending upon the amount of precipitation in the forecasts for the dry southern Plains. A pair of weather systems could provide the region with the best chance of meaningful rain in a long time by this weekend and futures were under pressure earlier this week because of it. But USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey says it may be too late for the hard red winter wheat crop in the southern Plains. Rippey: "Perhaps too late for some of the wheat crop which just really never had a chance as it remained dry and with the recent high temperatures, wind and dust and all kinds of problems we are probably not going to see a total recovery on the wheat but pretty much good news for everyone else on the southern Plains." And Rippey says the winter wheat elsewhere on the Plains is deteriorating. Rippey: "We see conditions continue to deteriorate in the central High Plains. Kansas in the last week saw the wheat condition deteriorate from 27% very poor to poor to 35% very poor to poor. And Colorado now standing with almost a quarter of the wheat crop, 24% rated very poor to poor on March 12th. Also we see some pockets of dryness developing across the interior Southeast. Although the wheat in North Carolina still holding on in pretty good shape, only two percent of the crop rated very poor to poor last week. Now increasing to 8% on March 12th." USDA notes the Inland Northwest has received some light showers. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.