Items Tagged with 'Brad Rippey'

Drought has spread into regions this fall essential to the Biden administration’s plans to boost wheat production through double cropping, but many farmers who follow the practice in their normal rotations haven’t strayed from their plans to sow winter wheat this fall.

Drought conditions that have been concentrated in the West and southern Plains are likely to spread in Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and South Dakota this summer, according to the U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook.

The winter wet season in the Sierra Nevada started with a bang in October but appears ready to end this spring in disappointing fashion.

The nation’s sugar cane crop likely took the biggest beating of any farm commodity from Hurricane Ida as it barreled northeast through Louisiana and Mississippi over the weekend and into Monday, but some cotton, rice, and soybean acres may have seen damage too.

States in the West and the High Plains are currently facing what Brad Rippey, a USDA meteorologist in the Office of the Chief Economist, calls the “most expansive” drought the U.S. has seen since 2012 and 2013.

High commodity prices are fueling farmers' optimism as planters get rolling this spring, but in some areas the lack of rain this spring is making producers nervous as they plant into the dusty ground.

Producers hit with wet planting conditions, a drought, and high winds are preparing for a long and slow corn and soybean harvest the next couple of weeks. Weather pattern changes for the upper Midwest could only make matters worse if the crop isn't harvested in time.

Farmers across the Midwest, where soils are already saturated, could face more widespread flooding this spring as rivers swell and winter storms continue, forecasters say.

California's Sierra Nevada snowpack should be well over 20 inches at this point, according to USDA's Meteoroligist Brad Rippey, but it's falling behind.