Drought causes further deterioration of HRW wheat conditions during January

Individual state crop conditions ratings released on Monday showed further deterioration of the HRW wheat crop during January due to drought in the Plains. The “good” to “excellent” ratings for HRW wheat dropped to 30% for Kansas (down three points from the end of December), 16% for Oklahoma (down four points), 7% for Texas (didn’t update at the end of December), 20% for Colorado (down five points), 36% for Nebraska (down three points) and 31% for South Dakota (down seven points). The Montana rating improved two points to 14% “good” to “excellent.”

When the individual state crop ratings are plugged into the weighted Pro Farmer Crop Condition Index (CCI; 0 to 500 point scale, with 500 being perfect), the HRW crop plunged to a rating of 270.4, down 54.1 points from the end of November when USDA released its final national ratings until spring.

* denotes percentage of total national HRW crop production.