Oklahoma's Crop Weather Summary for December was released on Tuesday afternoon- and it shows the condition of the 2017 winter wheat crop plummeted compared to the final weekly report of the season that came out at the end of November 2016. At the end of November, the Oklahoma wheat crop was still in 53% good to excellent condition- at the end of December, that rating is only 25% good with no acres called in excellent condition. Wheat in fair condition went from 35% at the end of November to 50% at the end of December- and the poor to very poor ratings jumped from 12% to 25% by the end of calendar year 2016.
NASS officials called December a "cold and dry weather month" for Oklahoma, with the mid December arctic blast on December 16th dropping temperatures by sixty degrees in a 24 hour period.
USDA reports that cattle producers grazed more acres of wheat than the five year average and compared to 2015 in the monthly summary- saying 47% of the winter wheat crop was being grazed as of the end of the calendar year- versus 39% a year ago and 33% as the five year average.
Pasture and range conditions also dropped sharply lower compared to the final weekly numbers released- with 24% of the pasture and range rated in good to excellent shape, 52% in fair condition and 24% in poor to very poor condition in the end of December tally- that's compared to 41% in good to excellent condition at the end of November, 40% in Fair Condition and 19% in poor to very poor condition.
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