Moisture Boosts Fall Range Conditions

REDFIELD, Iowa (DTN) -- Moving into fall, pasture and range conditions have seen improvement over the past few months in the beef cow-calf states.

While some states continue to suffer from lower-quality pastures, there is also visible improvement in the U.S. Drought Monitor over the past few months. Moisture has continued to help with improvements in many areas.

Some western states still suffer from lower quality pasture conditions, even with additional rainfall, according to USDA's weekly Crop Progress report released on Monday. Colorado and Wyoming are dealing with only 10% and zero percent pastures in the good-to-excellent category and 48% and 68% in the very-poor-to-poor category, respectively, but overall, the drought isn't as severe as was seen a few months ago.

Nebraska has continued to see improvement throughout the year. Range has been recovering after drought-sourced wildfires caused deterioration of nearly a million acres. While spotty D3 (extreme drought) and D4 (exceptional drought) are still seen in far western Nebraska, the remainder of the state has seen improvement since the beginning of summer. Nebraska now has 26% of pasture and range in the good-to-excellent category and 45% in very-poor-to-poor conditions.

Southwestern states of New Mexico and Arizona, which have especially suffered over the past year and beyond, have seen additional improvement. New Mexico now has 29% of pastures in good-to-excellent conditions, yet still 50% in very-poor-to-poor conditions. Arizona now has 45% in good to excellent and 38% in very poor to poor.

DTN Ag Meteorologist John Baranick said this week will be drier across the country and in beef states, which will help relieve flooded areas. "After a really wet couple weeks, much of the country is going to be very dry this week," he said. "That should help some flooded areas dry out, and sunshine and warm weather should help to use that water to improve conditions."

It is also interesting to look at soil moisture across the country and see what areas are more adequate in soil moisture, which also helps pasture conditions. These areas are especially seen in the upper Midwest and Ohio Valley.

Baranick pointed out that even with the continued moisture across the country, there are still areas dealing with drought. "It may take more than a week's worth of dry weather to dry some areas out, and drought still exists in many areas that saw heavy rain, so more rain will be needed going forward."

Very Poor Poor Fair Good Excellent 48 states 22 27 28 18 5 Previous Week 24 27 30 15 4 Previous Yer NA NA NA NA NA

Jennifer Carrico can be reached at jennifer.carrico@dtn.com

Follow her on social platform X @JennCattleGal

(c) Copyright 2026 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved.