Montana Winter Wheat Harvest Starts

Montana Winter Wheat Harvest

Reports are the winter wheat harvest in Montana has started, according to the Montana Crop Weather Report issued Monday at the Montana Field Office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Approximately 4 percent of the state's winter wheat harvest is complete, in contrast to 2 percent during the same time period last year. This is far behind the five-year winter wheat harvest average in Montana, which usually stands at 25 percent at this time.

So far farmers are rating the Montana winter wheat crop at 41 percent good and only 36 percent fair.

Close to 30 percent of the Montana spring wheat crop is turning according to the report, in comparison to 46 percent last years at the same time. That is faring a little better, with farmers rating the spring wheat crop at 47 percent good, while 31 percent is rated as fair.

The conditons of range and pasture feed are down about five percent from last year, with 39 percent being rated as good, a decline from 44 percent last year during the same period.

Dry conditions have causes pastures to dry up.

Montana Winter Wheat Harvest

Cold Weather Drives Up Weekly Wheat Prices

With the bulls concerned over the first strong cold weather of the season possibly may damage the dormant wheat crops, prices for the week ended up.

Even though Friday prices were softer, the overall week had KCBT wheat rising by 44.75 cents to $5.83 a bushel, MGE grew by 35.25 cents to $6.2525 a bushel and March CBOT led them all, gaining 50.25 cents to finish the week at $5.6325.

Although there was worries over the weather, a number of meteorologists suggested the cold spell probably wouldn't do enough damage to the crops to make much of a difference. Even so, prices rose on the possibility.

Weather will be especially rough in the central and southern Plains, with below-zero forecasts in the mix. Some of the concern was directed to areas that had little or no snow to protect from the bitterly cold temperatures.

Of course it won't be known until the spring if the dormant crop really had any damage to it, so it's a wait-and-see game at this time.

Spring wheat traded on the MGE hasn't been planted yet.

Wheat Conference Tackles Wheat Stem Rust Ug99

Norman Borlaug

With concerns wheat stem rust Ug99 could decimate the grain around the world, the International Conference on Wheat Stem Rust Ug99 was held in New Delhi to look at the potential threat.

Dr. Norman Borlaug, who identified the potent danger in Ug99, talked to those attending via a video conference. He was one of the leaders in developing the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI) in 2007. A number of universities, organizations and charities support BGRI, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The results of the conference were to formulate the Delhi Declaration, whose purpose was to generate global cooperation and a unified plan of action.

While there are a lot of recommendations and preparations made, the question is how all of them will be implemented.

Ug99 was first found in a Uganda nursery in 1999 and has spread to a number of countries.

Good article explaining Ug99 here.