11/17/05 Winter wheat progress report

The USDA in its crop progress report issued this week says the nation's winter wheat crop is average but developing nicely. USDA's meteorologist Mark Brusburg told us. BRUSBURG "About 88 percent of the crop has emerged. That's slightly ahead of last year and the five year average of 85 percent. The condition of the crop is 56 percent good to excellent. That's on par with a five year average." That's below last year's level when 78 percent of the crop was rated in the good to excellent category.. BRUSBURG "The dry weather on the great plains appears to be the culprit in some of these production states. Texas and Montana both fell about five percentage points out of the good to excellent category this week. They'd really like to see some more rain. Growers in Idaho have been getting plenty of rain in recent weeks, much of it just after the planting was finished. Most of them report favorable conditions so far. Idaho in 2004 had nearly 700 thousand acres of winter wheat, most of it soft white wheat. About 415 thousand of those acres were dryland wheat, mostly grown in north Idaho and most of it destined for the Asian export market. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott