As of Sept. 27, 75% of the U.S. was experiencing abnormal dryness/drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, up six percentage points from the previous week. Despite rains in areas of the Plains, the drought footprint expanded across HRW wheat areas.
USDA estimates the drought footprint covers 64% of winter wheat acres (up 7 points from last week). Across the Plains, dryness/drought covers 85% of Colorado (up 1 point), 99% of Kansas (up 2 point), 95% of Montana (up 4 points), 100% of Nebraska (unchanged), 100% of Oklahoma (unchanged), 93% of South Dakota (up 4 points) and 85% of Texas (up 6 points).
For the Plains, the Drought Monitor commentary notes: “Half an inch or more of rain fell across parts of North Dakota and Wyoming, with locally an inch or more in parts of Colorado and Nebraska and over 2 inches in parts of Kansas. But most of South Dakota had less than a fourth of an inch of rain as did large parts of Nebraska and Wyoming. More than 70% of the topsoil moisture was short or very short in Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming, according to USDA statistics, with the numbers 67% in Colorado and 54% in North Dakota. According to media reports, heat and drought limited forage production in Nebraska and other drought-stricken areas, forcing cattle producers to weigh hay supplies against herd size for the winter. Many growers chopped drought-damaged crops for silage. D0-D2 were pulled back in a few parts of Wyoming, D0-D3 were trimmed in parts of Kansas and Colorado where the heaviest rains fell, and D3 was deleted in western South Dakota. But drought or abnormal dryness expanded in other parts of the High Plains region states, including North Dakota (D0-D2), Colorado (D0-D1), Nebraska (D2-D3), South Dakota (D0-D4), and Kansas (D0-D2 and D4).”