Dry Pasture Conditions in Midwest

17 Sep 2024

By DTN Staff

OMAHA (DTN) -- The Delta received needed precipitation to improve pasture conditions, but dry weather in the Midwest shows a deterioration of range quality for the week ended Sept. 16, according to the latest data from USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Rain moved into the Delta region after Hurricane Francine made landfall. Some areas received large amounts, which helped pasture conditions improve in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana by 9, 8 and 5 points respectively for the good-to-excellent category. This also took pastures out of very poor-to-poor conditions in those states by 7, 12 and 2 points.

Colorado was the other state with a notable difference in good-and-excellent pastures, with a movement to 54% of the pastures in this category and 8 points less in the very poor-to-poor conditions at 30%.

Surveys also showed the Midwestern state of Illinois with the most movement from the good-to-excellent pastures, losing 15 points, taking them down to 26%, with a 16-point increase in very poor-to-poor pastures to 38%.

Other states in that region suffering from increased drought conditions include Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Indiana. Missouri saw a shift in pasture conditions losing 14 points on the good side down to 50% and 5 points more being very poor-to-poor at 13%. Iowa and Nebraska both have an 11-point decrease in good-to-excellent pasture conditions, while Iowa saw only a 4-point increase in very poor-to-poor; Nebraska had a 16-point increase to push very poor-to-poor conditions to 45%. Indiana has had continual dry conditions with a 7-point decrease on the best pastures and a 9-point increase on the poor side.

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

National Pasture and Range Conditions (48 states)