For the fifth week in a row, drought has expanded in the winter wheat-growing central and southern U.S. Plains, says USDA’s Ag in Drought website. Some 26 percent of winter wheat land is moderate to severe drought, up 2 percentage points in a week.
“Rain will be needed soon everywhere east of the Rockies to prevent a rapid intensification of drought as winter wheat continues to break dormancy and soil moisture requirements increase,” said the weekly Drought Monitor in discussing persistently dry and warm conditions in the central and southern Plains.
Farmers sowed 32.4 million acres of winter wheat for harvest this spring, the second-smallest area on record, said USDA. Winter wheat accounts for the lion’s share of U.S. wheat production, so this year’s 10-percent drop in plantings from 2015 will be a primary factor in a projected 20-percent drop in the all-wheat harvest this year. Growers are cutting back on winter wheat because of low market prices engendered by record global crops for four years in a two.