Winter Wheat Rating Improves; Spring Wheat Planting Picks Up

May 05, 2026

The condition rating of the drought-plagued U.S. winter wheat crop moved higher this past week – the first improvement since the USDA began releasing its weekly crop progress reports in early April.

Meanwhile, American spring wheat planting picked up to near the average pace after a slow start.

The USDA pegged the nationwide winter wheat crop at 31% good to excellent in its crop progress report Monday. That’s up 1 point from a week earlier but still 20 points below this time last year.

In the largest production state of Kansas, the condition of the crop eased 1 point on the week to 22% good to excellent, while the crop in Oklahoma improved 2 points on the week to 16% good to excellent. The condition of the Texas crop improved as well, rising 4 points to 16%.

The condition of the Soft Red crops in Michigan and Ohio were unchanged compared to a week earlier, holding at 60% and 66% good to excellent, respectively.

Across the country, 49% of the winter wheat crop had reached the heading stage as of Sunday, up from 34% a week earlier and ahead of 37% last year and 32% on average.

The Kansas crop was already 70% headed, far ahead of 28% on average, while the Oklahoma crop was also 70% headed, versus 58% on average. The crop in Ohio was 1% headed, behind 6% last year and 3% on average.

The USDA report showed national spring wheat planting at 32% complete as of Sunday, up 13 points from the previous week. That’s still 10 points behind a year ago but closer to the five-year average of 35%.

In the No. 1 production state of North Dakota, the spring wheat crop was 19% planted as of Sunday, up from 7% the previous week but far behind 33% last year and 24% on average.

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Video: Western Canadian Agriculture: Hard Times Made the World's Best Farmers

Western Canadian agriculture produced the most advanced farmers in the world not through abundance but through adversity. The crow rate fell. The wheat price went nowhere. The brown envelopes stopped.

When the subsidies disappeared, the bad farmers left and the good ones stayed. And the ones who stayed could not just grow wheat anymore. They started growing lentils and canola and peas and flax and faba beans. They built crop rotation. They got serious about agronomy because there was no government backstop. That process produced the Western Canadian agriculture Dennis Bulani describes in this clip: the most advanced, most educated farming culture in the world.

His contrast with Iowa corn and soybean farmers is sharp. At a DeKalb farmer meeting in Okoboji, Iowa, he asked what crop rotation they ran. Beans on corn stubble, corn on bean stubble. How do you fertilize? The co-op agronomist handles it. Have you considered other crops? No need. We make so much money on corn and soybeans. Western Canadian agriculture was never allowed that comfort. And now those Iowa farmers are watching soybean markets lock up with China and corn prices slide, and they do not have the agronomy knowledge or the research base to pivot. Western Canadian farmers adapted on a dime because they had done it before.

Dennis also makes the case that Western Canadian agriculture keeps adapting in real time. Low commodity prices over the past year have pushed growers to look seriously at precision spot-spray technology. He knows a neighbor who bought a sprayer with the seeing-eye system and sprayed only 80 out of 320 acres. As a chemical retailer Dennis acknowledges that will affect his sales. He supports it anyway, because if it advances Canadian agriculture and makes farmers money, that is a good outcome.

The lesson Dennis draws from the tale of two farms: continuous improvement is the only durable strategy. When canola was $22 a bushel some growers went to Arizona instead of the Crop Production Show. When the price came down those same growers came back to the research and the discipline. Products do not go on Rack Petroleum's shelves unless they pass a replicated trial first. That is what Western Canadian agriculture built through hard times: farmers who do the work whether the times demand it or not.

Dennis Bulani is CEO of Rack Petroleum and Ultimate Yield in Biggar, Saskatchewan. Dan Aberhart hosts GTF Productions, Western Canadian Agriculture's foremost live briefing platform and its foremost AI training platform for ag operators