US winter wheat faces cold, dry weather

The drought-plagued US hard red winter wheat crop in the Plains States is facing a cold snap and more dry weather as it begins entering its winter dormancy stage of development, or so-called hibernation, agricultural weather experts said on Monday.
"Over a third of the Plains wheat likely will enter winter poorly established, and late emergence issues persist for the very dry areas in South Dakota and parts of north-west Kansas, north-eastern Colorado and Nebraska," said Commodity Weather Group meteorologist Joel Widenor.
Widenor and other meteorologists said cold air over the weekend with temperatures falling into the teens (degrees Fahrenheit) and single digits in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains might have caused some minor damage to wheat plants. "Parts of south-western Nebraska may have seen spotty wheat damage," Widenor said.
The worst drought in more than 50 years drew down soil moisture reserves across the Great Plains hard red winter wheat and pasture grazing region. Dry weather persists in the western portion of the US Plains hard red winter wheat region, and little relief is in sight, said John Dee, meteorologist for Global Weather Monitoring.