Winter, Spring Wheat Condition Improves; Winter Wheat Harvest Stalled

The condition of the US winter wheat crop moved higher this past week, but little progress was made on the harvest. 

Meanwhile, the condition of the American spring wheat crop ticked higher for the second straight week. 

According to Monday’s USDA crop progress report, the national winter wheat harvest advanced just a single point from the previous week to reach 4% complete as of Sunday. That is well behind 11% last year and 7% for the five-year average. Going into the report, the average trade guess was for the harvest to be 8% done. 

Things are particularly slow in Oklahoma, where only 5% of the state winter wheat crop was in the bin as of Sunday, up from 4% a week earlier and far behind 44% last year and 23% on average. No harvesting was reported in the No. 1 production state of Kansas, compared to 4% last year and 1% on average. 

Rain was reported across much of Hard Red Winter country over the weekend, with amounts ranging from 1 to 3 inches. “Concern remains over wet fields in Oklahoma and south-central Kansas,” World Weather said in a report today. Additional rain is possible Wednesday into Friday, the report added. 

The national winter wheat crop was rated 54% good to excellent as of Sunday, up 2 points from a week earlier and now 7 points better than a year ago.