Agricultural Summary

Warm weather at the beginning of the week was followed by showers and cooler temperatures across the State. The northeast district reported some flooding in the bottom ground from the Salt and Mississippi rivers. Light to moderate snow fell in the west-central and the northern districts over the weekend. Topsoil moisture is 1 percent very short, 11 percent short, 60 percent adequate, and 28 percent surplus. Last year, the whole state had adequate to surplus moisture compared with 88 percent this year. About half of the southwest and a third of the south-central are reporting short to very short topsoil moisture conditions. Spring tillage is 23 percent complete, compared to the 30 percent as normal. There were 3.0 days suitable for fieldwork. Five days of fieldwork were suitable in the south central and southwest districts.

Field Crops Report

Corn planting progress was slowed by the rains. Corn planting is at 1 percent complete, on par with last year but 3 points behind normal. Planting progressed in the southern part of the state and the west-central district. Wheat condition is rated at 1 percent very poor, 4 percent poor, 42 percent fair, 47 percent good, and 6 percent excellent. Last year 55 percent of winter wheat was in good to excellent condition compared to 53 percent this year. In the northwest district, frost last fall may have damaged more wheat than originally thought.

Pasture & Livestock

Pasture condition is rated 1 percent very poor, 12 percent poor, 42 percent fair, 43 percent good, and 2 percent excellent. Pastures are greening up but are in need of warmer conditions to promote growth. The current condition of 45 percent good to excellent is above the normal pasture condition of 24 percent good to excellent for this time of year.

Weather Summary

Average temperatures were near normal to 4 degrees above average across the State, except in the northwest and north central districts where temperatures were 3 to 5 degrees below average. Rainfall averaged 2.19 inches with a range of 1.92 inches in the northwest district to 3.15 inches in the west-central district. Bates and Vernon counties reported over 4 inches of precipitation, while Ste. Genevieve and Dunklin counties received less than an inch of precipitation.