KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, US — Fresh indicators reveal improved conditions of the 2024 winter wheat crop in Kansas and Oklahoma but mixed results elsewhere.

State divisions of the US Department of Agriculture on Jan. 2 issued monthly crop progress and condition updates, their first since the Department paused its weekly national aggregate updates for the winter at the end of November 2023. At the same time, slight improvements in moisture levels for the crop overall belied pockets of extreme drought in hard red winter wheat country and a wide swath of area in severe drought across the Central states where soft red winter wheat is most prevalent.

State and regional USDA offices released reports summarizing crop activity in December and rating the crop’s condition as the sun set on 2023. The USDA’s Northern Plains Regional Field Office in Manhattan, Kansas, US, said winter wheat in the nation’s top hard red winter production state was 5% excellent (5% in the previous report issued Dec. 11), 38% good (34%), 36% fair (36%), 12% poor (15%) and 9% very poor (10%). 

Improved conditions reflected a major precipitation event that soaked Kansas Dec. 13-15. Temperatures in the range of 30 degrees (F) meant freezing rain fell at times, especially early in the storm, which also included snow, said Kansas State University’s agronomy department in a late-December update. KSU said the state’s highest recorded precipitation total for the three-day event was 3.59 inches in Meade County in southwest Kansas abutting the Oklahoma border just east of Liberal. Rain gauges also collected more than three inches in Seward and Clark counties on either side of Meade, and in Ford and Edwards counties in central Kansas.

“The highest 24-hour total was in Clark County, where the cooperative observer in Ashland picked up 2.30 inches,” KSU said. “Not far behind was a 2.24 inches report near Bucklin, in Ford County. The Bucklin total was historic, as it was the largest 24-hour amount ever recorded in the month of December at that location, where records date back 130 years. At least 10 locations recorded a top five wettest December day during this event, including Dodge City, Greensburg, Hays, and Russell.”

A peek at other hard red winter wheat states showed mostly improved conditions. The USDA in Oklahoma City rated the crop 67% in good-to-excellent condition as of Dec. 31 (53% on Nov. 26), 23% fair and 10% in poor-to-very-poor condition, and said wheat was 53% grazed versus 32% a year earlier. The Department’s Colorado office said the Centennial State’s winter wheat was 61% in good-to-excellent condition (65% at end of November), 28% fair (33%) and 11% poor-very poor (compared with 2% poor, none very poor as of Nov. 26).

The USDA office in Lincoln rated Nebraska winter wheat 48% in good-to-excellent condition as of Dec. 31 (49% on Nov. 26), 36% fair and 16% poor to very poor. Out of the Sioux Falls office came a South Dakota report indicating winter wheat was 54% in good-to-excellent condition as of Dec. 31, up from 52% on Nov. 26. The USDA’s Montana Field Office (located in Lakewood, Colo.) said Montana winter wheat at the end of 2023 was 43% in good-to-excellent condition (58% a month earlier), that 27% of the crop had light-to-moderate wind damage and that 27% of the wheat had light freeze and drought damage. Texas did not immediately release a December summary.

Conditions in soft red winter wheat country were good considering the problematic moisture situation in the Central states. The Dec. 26 US Drought Monitor showed the entirety of Missouri and Indiana were in severe or moderate drought or abnormally dry. Northern Illinois was in good shape, moisture-wise, but the southern half was mostly in severe drought mode with smaller areas of moderate drought and abnormal dryness.

Northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan were in similar straits. Good-to-excellent conditions on soft red winter wheat on Dec. 31 were 73% in Missouri (71% on Nov. 26) and 55% in Illinois (72%), the USDA said.  Indiana, Ohio nor Michigan immediately released a December summary.