Drought conditions have impacted southern crop planting and USDA Meteorologist Brad Rippey provided an overview of those conditions.
Rippey said, “Core drought areas include the southern United States, portions of the Great Plains, and extending into the western United States. If you look at the regions, the southeast region, we are seeing at this time, not only do we have 99 percent of that southeast region in drought, but 61.5 percent is experiencing extreme or exceptional drought. We’ve got a significant pocket of D4, exceptional drought, extending from north Florida into southern Georgia and the southern tip of South Carolina. If you look at the west as a whole, we are currently seeing 70 percent of that 11-state region in drought and 16 percent in extreme to exceptional drought. The Great Plains, we do have significant drought, stretching all the way from Montana to Texas.”
“Peanut production areas, both in the southeast and on the southern Great Plains, are experiencing drought. 100 percent of the crop production area in drought at this time. On May 5th, 98 percent of the U.S. cotton belt was in drought. That extends, of course, all the way from California to the southern Atlantic coast. Some of that cotton is irrigated and may not be affected by drought, but we certainly have big concerns in places like west Texas on into Oklahoma. We have seen some improvement more recently in our delta and southeastern areas, so hopefully we can keep that trend going, but as of the moment, 98 percent of the cotton belt in drought,” said Rippey.
Audio Reporting by Dale Sandlin for Southeast AgNet.