Drought Splits US Pasture Conditions

REDFIELD, Iowa (DTN) -- Pasture and range conditions tell a tale of two sides of the country. The east side, where moisture has been occurring, has a high percentage rated in good condition; the west side has more area in drought with poor pasture conditions, according to the latest USDA Crop Progress report released on Monday.

Overall, by looking at the maps, the states west of the Missouri River have a much lower percentage of pasture and range in the good-to-excellent category. This is also the area of the country with more area in D2 (Severe Drought) or worse.

Wyoming has the least amount of pasture and range in the good-to-excellent category at 2% and they also have the most in the very-poor-to-poor category at 75%. Other states with low amounts in the good-to-excellent ranking are Nebraska and Colorado at 9% each. These states also have a high percentage rated very poor to poor with Nebraska at 70% and Colorado at 64% after a 12-percentage-point improvement over the past week.

South Dakota has the highest amount of pasture added to the very-poor-to-poor category with an 18-percentage-point boost to 64%. A 10-percentage-point decline was also seen in the South Dakota pastures rated good to excellent at 12%.

DTN Ag Meteorologist John Baranick said a front is stalling out from Nebraska eastward into the Ohio Valley where it will be waffling around all week. "This front will be a focal point for periods of showers and thunderstorms throughout the week. We should see multiple rounds each day from the Plains through the Midwest, but they're not going to hit everywhere," he said. "The best chances will be closest to the front, but we should see some decent coverage across Montana and the Dakotas and even as far north as southern Minnesota and Wisconsin, too."

Coverage south of the front will be sparse and there will be large sections from Kansas and Missouri south to the Gulf that will see little or no rain. While Missouri has received timely rains to help keep pastures in good shape, Kansas could use more moisture as only 39% of pasture and range there is rated good-to-excellent condition.

"Pinpointing where heavy rain will fall will be challenging. This pattern also supports severe weather and will need to be monitored closely for protecting livestock," Baranick added.

North of the front, higher in the Plains and Midwest, will be notably cooler, especially as another punch of Canadian air comes down late this week. South of the front will be extremely hot with temperatures pushing up over 100 degrees F all week long from Kansas south to Texas, according to Baranick.

The eastern U.S. is mostly in good shape for pasture conditions, but that could change as temperatures continue to be into the 90s -- with very high dew points that will make it feel miserable as well -- especially in the areas that don't see rain. "The humidity may be enough to spark off some isolated showers and storms in the Southeast throughout the week, but coverage may be a bit on the low side," Baranick said. Pasture and range conditions in this region are variable according to who has received moisture throughout the year.

	Very poor	Poor	Fair	Good	Excellent
48 States	22	25	28	22	3
Previous week	23	23	29	22	3
Previous year	10	20	31	29	10

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

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