By John Baranick , DTN Meteorologist
A review and forecast of the U.S. crop weather scene begins with the impact of the cold snap during the April 21-27 week. That cold event certainly left its mark. Winter wheat in either good or excellent condition declined by four percentage points overall from the previous week to 49% rated good to excellent compared with 53% the previous week. Oklahoma and Texas showed declines in the good-to-excellent totals of 9 percentage points in Oklahoma (70% to 61%) and 10 points in Texas (28% to 18%). In addition, corn planting was slowed by the cold outbreak. Planting did advance 9 percentage points to 17% complete, but fell behind the average pace of 20%.
However, planting progress was only slow for corn. Soybean planting progress advanced 5 percentage points for the week to 8% complete and pulled ahead of the average pace of 5%. The only state lagging the average pace was Louisiana, at 15% complete compared to 33% on average. This is mostly due to heavy rainfall during the past few weeks in the southern Delta region. And, despite the cold across the northern states, spring wheat planting advanced quite a bit. All states are ahead of the average pace except for Montana, which lags it by just 2 percentage points. Planting progressed to 28% complete compared to 19% on average.