drought

The U.S. winter wheat crop will be the smallest in eight years due to drought in the central and southern Plains, the government said, estimating a harvest of 1.38 billion bushels, 2 percent less than it forecast in May and 10 percent smaller than 2013.

Gov Jerry Brown asked Californians to cut water consumption by 20 percent in the face of widespread drought. Five months later, the San Francisco Chronicle says voluntary conservation has yielded small results in the Bay area.

For many people, burning sunlight is the symbol of drought. In a Progressive Farmer story, it is powder-dry soil and wind that are ever-present for farmers and ranchers in southeastern Colorado.

A lot of wheat in western Kansas has has been "zeroed out for insurance purposes, and a lot more will be," says the chief of the Kansas State University ag experiment station south of Hays in northwest Kansas.

The government says wildfires have burned nearly 700,000 acres this year. That's three times the acreage at this point in 2013 but 40 percent less than the 10-year average for the first five months of the year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. It lists 21,530 fires since Jan 1. The average is 26,667 fires.

"Tempting Europe with Ugly Fruit" is headline of New York Times story about a cooperative in Portugal that buys fruit and vegetables rejected under EU food marketing law and sells the goods to customers by circumvention of labeling requirements.

Food production could shrink by 2 percent per decade for the rest of the century, pulled down by higher temperatures, shifts in rainfall and natural disaster, says a report by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. It calls on the United States to include climate change activities in international agriculture development efforts.

The winter wheat crop, dried by intense drought in the central and southern Plains, deteriorated starkly in the past four weeks, putting the harvest into doubt, USDA data indicate. Some 44 percent of the crop is in poor or very poor condition, according to the weekly Crop Progress report. That's 2 points more than a week ago and 11 points more than April 20. Some 34 percent of the crop rated as good or excellent then. Now, it's 29 percent.

Beneficial rains moistened the western Corn Belt, particularly Nebraska and western Iowa, said the Drought Monitor, which says 38 percent of the contiguous 48 states are in drought vs 40 percent a week ago.

Farm-gate wheat prices could average a record $8.75/bushel if bad weather further reduces the U.S. wheat crop and draws down stockpiles, says economist Dan O'Brien of Kansas State University. Stocks peaked at 976 million bushels in 2010 and have fallen annually ever since.

California growers are curtailing rice plantings by 18 percent due to drought but larger plantings in the Delta will offset much of the downturn for the sticky rice used in sushi. "The decline in California medium-grain plantings due to drought and water restrictions have attracted more acres of medium-grain rice in the Delta where plantings in 2014 are projected up 39 percent," says USDA. In the end, medium-grain area will drop 6 percent.

The Drought Monitor says arid conditions deepened in the central and southern Plains during the past week with Kansas as the leading edge "of the intense drought that seems to be waking up and pushing rapidly north along with warmer temperatures."

Slowed by a cold and wet spring, farmers have planted 29 pct of corn land in the 18 major states, 13 points behind the five-year average of 42 pct planted by the first week of May, says the weekly Crop Progress report. A week ago, planting, at 19 pct, was 9 points behind average. If corn is planted after May 20, yields are lower.

Kansas, often the No 1 wheat state in the nation, will reap its smallest harvest since 1996 due to drought and freeze damage, scouts estimated at the end of the annual wheat tour. The crop was pegged at 260.7 mln bu with an avg yield of 33.2 bu/ac, said Bloomberg, compared to 319.2 mln bu last year with a statewide yield of 38.0 bu/ac. "Output...would be the lowest since 255.2 mln (bu) in 1996." Analysts had expected a crop of 299 mln bu.

Drought intensified in winter wheat states during April, a crucial period for crop development, according to USDA's AginDrought site. Ten pct of winter wheat land is under exceptional drought, the direst rating on a five-point scale of drought conditions, this week, compared to 4 pct at the start of the month.

In a monthly update, the Agriculture Department stuck to its forecast of a 3 pct annual increase in food prices this year.

"California's worsening drought reached a new, ominous milestone this week just as the typical dry season begins for much of the state," says The Weather Channel.