{"id":4815,"date":"2026-04-25T19:02:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T19:02:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/?p=4815"},"modified":"2026-04-25T19:02:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T19:02:31","slug":"u-s-wheat-crops-wither-herds-thin-as-spring-drought-deepens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/?p=4815","title":{"rendered":"U.S. wheat crops wither, herds thin as spring drought deepens"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Farmers across\u00a0the Great Plains are confronting an intense drought that threatens\u00a0winter wheat harvests and is pushing cattle producers toward costly feed purchases, prompting some to abandon plans to expand their herds.<\/p>\n

The dryness is expected to persist through spring after weeks of scant rainfall\u00a0and a late-winter heat spell that fueled massive pasture fires across the nation\u2019s breadbasket. Drought now covers nearly 90% of Nebraska and Oklahoma, with\u00a0more than half\u00a0of Nebraska in \u201cextreme\u201d drought. Such\u00a0conditions\u00a0have historically driven cattle producers to sell off animals and forced farmers to drill new irrigation wells as rivers run dry.<\/p>\n

The coming weeks are critical for\u00a0growers in the Plains, as winter wheat\u00a0begins to mature ahead of the summer harvest and before other crops are planted. Without sufficient moisture from rainfall or irrigation, wheat shoots struggle to fill out and produce grain.\u00a0Some farmers will allow cattle to graze fields instead of attempting to harvest grain.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of modern precedent for these very rough conditions heading into the spring growing season, but this certainly ranks up there with some of the worst we\u2019ve seen,\u201d said\u00a0Brad Rippey, a meteorologist for the US Department of Agriculture.<\/p>\n

Though periodic rains have rolled through parts of the Plains this spring, the region as a whole remains unusually dry after a La Ni\u00f1a winter, marked by low snow and record-breaking warm temperatures,\u00a0stripped moisture\u00a0from the soil.<\/p>\n

The impact is already showing. Just 30% of the US winter wheat crop\u00a0was\u00a0rated\u00a0good to excellent as of Sunday in USDA data, the lowest rating since 2023. Roughly half of the crop in Colorado, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas \u2014 the region\u2019s largest\u00a0producers\u00a0\u2014\u00a0is categorized as poor to very poor, Rippey said, indicating a\u00a0high risk\u00a0of yield losses.<\/p>\n

The drought is also colliding with higher input costs. Fertilizer prices have soared following attacks on Iran by the US and Israel, prompting some\u00a0farmers to cut back on applications. US Representative Frank Lucas, a Republican from Oklahoma, said he chose not to purchase nitrogen fertilizer for his wheat fields in the western part of the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t have enough moisture \u2014\u00a0it wouldn\u2019t have done any good,\u2019\u2019 Lucas said. \u201cNumber two, I\u2019m not even sure what the cost would be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farmers were under economic pressure even before the drought threatened yields. Still, ample grain supplies elsewhere in the world could limit any price gains. In the Plains, \u201cmoisture is desperately needed,\u201d Rippey said, adding that rainfall in the coming weeks will likely determine whether the winter wheat crop will be \u201cmade or broken for 2026.\u201d\u00a0The drought, while unlikely to impact meat prices, will also lend little reprieve to record beef costs if it stalls the rebuilding of the US cattle herd.<\/p>\n

Relief may not arrive soon enough. Although the drying La Ni\u00f1a pattern has\u00a0ended, heavy rains may not return to the central US until its warming counterpart, El Ni\u00f1o, develops later this summer. By then, the winter wheat harvest and planting window\u00a0could\u00a0be closing.<\/p>\n

Between now and late July, outlooks from the US Climate Prediction Center call for an\u00a0expansion\u00a0of drought in eastern Colorado and western Kansas, with below-average rainfall in some areas and\u00a0unseasonably\u00a0warm temperatures. That warmth can \u201cinduce more atmospheric demand\u201d for moisture, said\u00a0Eric Hunt, an agricultural meteorologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. \u201cEvapotranspiration is higher, meaning that you could lose more water out of the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dry terrain has contributed to a spate of destructive wildfires across\u00a0the southern Plains, burning\u00a0roughly 1 million acres of hayfields and pasture by the end of March. The losses are further\u00a0dimming prospects for rebuilding the US cattle herd, which has already\u00a0shrunk\u00a0to a 75-year low as farmers opt to sell animals for slaughter instead of keeping them for breeding.<\/p>\n

Early in the year, the number of heifers \u2014\u00a0young female cows that have yet to give birth \u2014\u00a0auctioned into the meat supply chain began to fall, said\u00a0Altin Kalo, head economist at Steiner Consulting. That data point can signal future breeding plans, Kalo added, but as drought conditions deepened in recent weeks, auction volumes climbed back toward levels seen over the past two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrought just sets everything back,\u201d said Ben Smith, a field operations manager with the nonprofit\u00a0Farm Rescue. \u201cThat\u2019s when guys start to have to make tough decisions on liquidating some of their herd if they can\u2019t afford to buy feed or can\u2019t find alternative feed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farm Rescue has\u00a0delivered donated hay\u00a0to replace supplies lost to fires in Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska, Smith said. Two major trade associations, Nebraska Cattlemen and Oklahoma Cattlemen\u2019s Association, have also\u00a0opened\u00a0mutual aid funds to support affected ranchers.<\/p>\n

\u201cRebuilding, whether it\u2019s corrals or fences, takes time and takes money,\u201d said Nebraska Cattlemen President\u00a0Craig Uden, noting that thousands of miles of pasture fencing were destroyed in the blazes. Replacement costs usually exceed $10,000 per mile, cutting into ranchers\u2019 incomes even if they don\u2019t show up in consumer prices. \u201cWhat people really need is seed, hay, tillers and equipment to help move cattle, because a lot of them will have to find new homes for the summer.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

#U.S #wheat #crops #wither #herds #thin #spring #drought #deepens<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Farmers across\u00a0the Great Plains are confronting an intense drought that threatens\u00a0winter wheat harvests and is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[245],"tags":[1839,10018,1288,2358,10020,475,10021,722,10017,10019],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4815"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4815\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}