Drought Hits Beef Pastures    08/18 04:53

   Drought Pushes Plains, Southwest Pasture Conditions Far Below Year-Ago Levels

   Hot summer weather is driving drought conditions across the Plains and 
Southwest, pushing pasture and range ratings to significantly worse than a year 
ago. Iowa and Missouri remain bright spots, while Nebraska, Colorado and 
Wyoming lead in poor conditions.

Jennifer Carrico
DTN Senior Livestock Editor

   REDFIELD, Iowa (DTN) -- Drought is hammering pastures and rangeland across 
the Plains and Southwest, pushing conditions significantly below where they 
stood a year ago.

   The states with the highest percentage of pasture and range in the 
very-poor-to-poor category are in those two regions, according to USDA's weekly 
Crop Progress report released on Monday. Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming have 
the highest percentage of pastures in this category at 73%, 72% and 71%, 
respectively. These states also lack pasture in the good-to-excellent category, 
with Nebraska and Colorado both at 8% and Wyoming at 4%.

   DTN Ag Meteorologist John Baranick said the stagnant weather pattern last 
week led to multiple rounds of showers and thunderstorms in some of the bigger 
cattle areas from Montana down to Colorado and into the Dakotas down through 
western Kansas.

   "That should have helped to improve conditions; if not right away, then this 
week and beyond, as forages might start to green up a little better now. Some 
follow-up rains should be noted this week as a few disturbances go through 
these same areas. Not a lot of organized, heavy rain like we saw last week, but 
something is better than nothing," he said.

   The Midwestern states of Iowa and Missouri continue to be in good shape for 
moisture, which is reflected in pasture conditions. Iowa is at 67% of pasture 
and range in the good-to-excellent category, which is a 1-percentage-point 
increase over last week. Missouri has 78% of pasture and range in the 
good-to-excellent category, even with a 2-point decrease since last week.

   Baranick said the heavy rain that moved through Iowa and continued eastward 
to Ohio led to some areas dealing with flooding. "If they aren't, their 
pastures and ranges should see marked improvements after some drier 
conditions," he added. "That didn't continue farther south, though. A couple of 
fronts will move through the Midwest this week, and that should bring through 
some scattered rains. For some areas that were drier last week, like Minnesota 
and Wisconsin, they should benefit. But those wet areas don't need to see any 
more rain, and that could hurt."

   Drought conditions are spreading across the South, with increased D3 
(Extreme Drought) and D4 (Exceptional Drought) seen in parts of New Mexico, 
Texas and Oklahoma. This has also led to declining pasture and range conditions 
in those states. New Mexico has 58% in the very poor-to-poor category, with 
only 9% rated as good to excellent. Texas has 46% poor-to-very-poor conditions 
and 21% rated good to excellent. Oklahoma has 51% of pastures and range in the 
very poor-to-poor category, while 17% is in the good-to-excellent category. 
Kansas remains in the middle with 37% of pasture and range in good-to-excellent 
condition and 30% reported as very poor to poor.

   Baranick said that across eastern Kansas through southern Illinois and down 
to the Gulf, it was not only very dry, but increasingly hot.

   "Many days up near or over the century mark were noted with little rain or 
even cloud cover. Rapidly decreasing soil moisture is leading to flash drought 
conditions in these areas that should be noted well ahead of any updates to the 
U.S. Drought Monitor later this week," he said.

   "A couple of fronts are expected to pass through this week. They won't be 
bringing down temperatures very much in the Southern Plains, if at all, and 
only marginally across the Southeast. Showers are forecast to be pretty spotty 
with these fronts, so no significant improvements to pastures or ranges are 
expected," Baranick said.

   Nationwide, pasture conditions are much worse currently than they were a 
year ago. The very poor and poor conditions are currently at 22% and 26%, 
respectively, as compared to 11% and 20% in 2025. That is also seen in the 
good-to-excellent category, with current conditions at 20% good and 3% 
excellent, while a year ago those numbers were 29% and 10%.

                       Very poor       Poor    Fair    Good    Excellent
48 States              22              26      29      20      3
Previous week          22              25      28      22      3
Previous year          11              20      30      29      10

   Jennifer Carrico can be reached at jennifer.carrico@dtn.com

   Follow her on social platform X @JennCattleGal




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