The drought stricken areas of western Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle could see some much-needed rain this week, but conditions are still dire.
According to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor, the entire Oklahoma Panhandle is in D4, or exceptional drought, and The Texas Panhandle is experiencing D3, extreme drought, and D4 conditions.
The drought is still having an impact on winter wheat conditions. In the latest wheat condition report from USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), 31 percent of the nationwide winter wheat crop is rated good to excellent, a 1 percent improvement from last week.
13 percent is good to excellent in Texas, 8 percent is rated good to excellent in Oklahoma, and 12 percent is rated good to excellent in Kansas.
With the dry conditions and cold weather, some analysts think any improvement to the winter wheat crop will be difficult.
“The drought has still taken away a lot of the yield potential, and that’s going to hurt the crop’s ability to come back from this spring freeze damage,” said Arlan Suderman, chief commodities economist for INTL FCStone.
According to Suderman, the rains from the weekend are likely to improve the millability of the crop in some regions compared to yields.
“The drought has still taken away a lot of the yield potential, and that’s going to hurt the crops ability to come back from this spring freeze damage,” said Suderman.
