Midwest Sees Much-Needed Moisture

By DTN Staff

OMAHA (DTN) -- Many parts of the Midwest received rain, helping improve pasture and range conditions for the week ended Sept. 23, according to the latest data from the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service's weekly Crop Progress report.

Improvements have been seen, especially in Nebraska where parts of the state had become extremely dry. Pasture conditions improved overall with a 9-point increase in the good-to-excellent category to 37% and a 12-point decrease in the very-poor-to-poor category, which ended the week at 33%. Kansas, South Dakota and North Dakota all improved by 1 point in the good-to-excellent category, showing ratings of 33%, 31% and 53%, respectively. Kansas and North Dakota also had a 4-point decrease in the very-poor-to-poor category.

Colorado continues to see up-and-down movement of pasture conditions. This week's report showed an 11-point decrease in the state's good-to-excellent category to 43% and a 7-point increase in the very-poor-to-poor category at 29%.

Nearly all of Ohio was in drought with a large part of the state showing extreme and exceptional drought. This has caused deterioration of pasture and range conditions with only 2% rated good to excellent and a sharp increase of 18 points in the very-poor-to-poor category to 93%.

Neighboring Kentucky, which is a top 10 beef cow state, has also seen increases in poor pasture conditions. A 7-point decrease was seen in the good-to-excellent rating to 27%, and there was a 12-point increase on the very-poor-to-poor side to 44%.

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

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National Pasture and Range Conditions (48 states)

	Very poor	Poor	Fair	Good	Excellent
48 States	20	25	30	20	5
Previous week	18	26	29	21	6
Previous year	16	19	29	30	6
* Data from USDA NASS weekly Crop Progress report.

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