Dry Pasture Conditions Extend

By DTN Staff

OMAHA (DTN) -- Dry weather has extended into the Eastern Corn Belt with several states seeing an increase in poor pasture conditions for the week ended Sept. 9, according to the latest data from USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Surveys show the states of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio have had an increase in poor-to-very-poor conditions, while some of the states with declining conditions the previous week have held near even.

Ohio saw the biggest increase in poor-to-very-poor pastures with 21 points, taking them to 74%. Illinois saw an 11-point increase to 22% and Indiana saw an 8-point increase to 23%.

New Mexico and Arizona have seen some relief with movement to the positive side and less in the poor-to-very-poor range. Arizona saw a 19-point decrease at 35%. New Mexico saw a 10-point decrease of bad pastures with 37% being poor-to-very-poor. Both also saw an increase in good-to-excellent pastures of 1 point in Arizona to 32% and a jump of 16 points in New Mexico to 34%.

Several of the top cow-calf raising states continue to see drought-type conditions with a high percentage of the states having poor- to very-poor pasture conditions including Texas, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Montana and Kentucky all having more than 30% of the pastures in poor or very poor condition. On a positive note, Missouri, Florida and North Dakota all have 55% or more of their pastures in the good-to-excellent category.

Online users can click on the accompanying maps to see changes in various states.

National Pasture and Range Conditions (48 states)

	Very poor	Poor	Fair	Good	Excellent
48 States	15	24	32	23	6
Previous week	16	26	30	23	5
Previous year	18	21	28	27	6

* Data from USDA NASS weekly Crop Progress report.

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