09/08/05 Crop progress around the country

09/08/05 Crop progress around the country

Farm and Ranch September 8, 2005 While the nation's attention has been focused on the Gulf states and the ravages of Hurricane Katrina, USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey says agricultural activities have been ongoing elsewhere in the U.S. Rippey: "While most eyes are on the tropics much of the remainder of the country continues to enjoy warm and mostly dry late summer conditions favorable for all kinds of all kinds of agricultural activities such as summer crop harvesting which is now advancing out of the South and even up into the southern cornbelt where corn harvesting is underway. Also in the Plains lots of things going on, not only finishing up with the wheat harvesting in north but also getting underway with the winter wheat planting in the South. That is also true in the northwest." In Washington, to start this week, about 15 percent of the winter wheat had been planted. Five percent of Idaho's winter wheat had been sown to start the week. In Oregon growers have generally been waiting for rain. USDA says the spring wheat harvest in the U.S. is 90 percent complete and that's 28 points ahead of last year. Idaho growers harvested 23 percent of their spring wheat acreage last week pulling to within two points of the normal pace. U.S. barley producers had harvested 90 percent of the crop. The barley harvest was nearly complete in Washington and Oregon but Idaho had cut only 75 percent of its crop. The potato harvest in Idaho stood at four percent complete. In Washington 54 percent of the potatoes had been harvested, well ahead of last year and the five year average pace. I"m Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network. .
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