Storms Lift Pastures, But Gains Are Slim

REDFIELD, Iowa (DTN) -- While last week's storms over much of beef country helped bring some of the worst pasture and range to better conditions, it didn't make much improvement in the good-to-excellent category.

Pasture and range in the Plains and Midwest mostly saw improvements in the very-poor-to-poor category. South Dakota saw a 3-percentage-point improvement in this area to have 37% of pasture and range ranked here. Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma all had a 2-percentage-point improvement, while Colorado marked a 6-percentage-point improvement.

HOT, HUMID FORECAST COULD OFFSET GAINS

This week's continuation of hot and humid weather could influence pasture growth. DTN Ag Meteorologist John Baranick said this week will only show a slight difference in the forecast for most of cattle country. "The Plains will be a few degrees cooler this week, but areas of Texas will still be very hot and well into the 90s, while we should see temperatures increasing this weekend across the Northern Plains," he said. "The heat across the Midwest was certainly noteworthy, but the week ended with a lot of rain, especially across Iowa and into southern Minnesota eastward through southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois all the way to New York."

Improvements could be seen with the continuation of rain as the drought conditions are slowly eased in the Plains. Baranick said some areas have long-term deficits to erase, which could take longer.

On the positive side, Montana, which has been in drought-type conditions for several months, had an 8-percentage-point improvement in good-to-excellent pasture and range to get to 42% in this category. Colorado, who has also suffered, saw a 3-percentage-point improvement to get to 11% good-to-excellent pasture and range.

NEBRASKA, SOUTHEAST TELL DIFFERENT RECOVERY STORY

Even though Nebraska saw more pasture and range improvement in the very-poor-to-poor conditions, they still have 64% in this category and only 7% marked good to excellent. Less of the state is in the very worst drought conditions now, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, but a large portion of Nebraska continues to recover from wildfires.

The Southeast has seen timely rains to help with pasture and range improvement. Baranick said a system that moved through over the holiday weekend has settled into the Southeast quadrant of the country, where showers and thunderstorms will continue for the next several days, spreading into the southern Midwest.

"A little system forming on the western end of the front on Friday in the Plains will then move east through the Midwest, pushing showers down into the South and Southeast for this weekend and next week," he said. "Overall, every area east of the Rockies will have a chance at some rain this week. The heat building in the Northern Plains this weekend should spread through more of the Plains next week."

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

Follow her on social platform X @JennCattleGal

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