NASS Data Shows Improved Pastures

By DTN Staff

OMAHA (DTN) -- Rains across the country led to continual improvements in pasture and range conditions across many states, although localized drought persists, according to the National Ag Statistics Service weekly crop progress report.

Several states saw improvement in pasture and range conditions this week. Missouri improved 4 points in the good-to-excellent category to 92%. Iowa also saw a 4-point improvement to 75% of pastures rated good to excellent. While Wyoming saw a 10-point jump, only 37% of the state's pastures are considered good to excellent.

Decreases of 6, 4 and 7 points were seen in good-to-excellent condition pastures in Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma, respectively. Texas saw no changes in this category.

Very poor to poor pasture and range conditions continue to be seen in Montana, Arizona and Nevada, where they ranked 65%, 80% and 90%, respectively. New Mexico saw a 13-point increase in the very-poor-to-poor category, reaching 39%. Nebraska also continues to be a drought-stricken state with 8 points more considered very poor to poor at 37%.

DTN Ag Meteorologist John Baranick said, "Conditions for pastures continue to be pretty darn good for the southern half of the Plains up through the Midwest. Multiple systems, fronts, and disturbances have led to more widespread rainfall throughout these regions over the last week."

A drying trend is expected for the Southern Plains this week, though. Baranick said while there will be some showers with a front sagging across the region through Thursday, it should start to get a bit drier this weekend and especially next week.

"An upper-level ridge will be developing and moving into the region, which typically means hotter and drier conditions. However, for the Northern Plains and Midwest, the ridge will not make it that far north and a somewhat persistent trough across Canada will mean more active weather from Montana to the East Coast through most of next week," he added.

Areas with adequate soil moisture should continue to maintain pasture conditions or perhaps improve them in some areas where the soil moisture isn't as good like Montana, Nebraska, northern Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio, he concluded.

See the accompanying maps for more on the changes in various states.

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National Pasture and Range Conditions (48 states)

	Very poor	Poor	Fair	Good	Excellent
48 States	11	17	26	33	13
Previous week	11	16	28	32	13
Previous year	12	17	30	34	7

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