May 2014: Weather Watch: Wheat conditions improve in US, EU still in good shape
Conditions for US winter wheat development have improved over the course of the past week with rains improving moisture levels in some key areas.
Rains in the former Soviet Union countries have also favoured wheat development there, while the EU generally continues to see good growing conditions, MDA EarthSat Weather reports.
In the US, showers favoured the northwestern and southeastern Plains this week, which helped to improve moisture there for winter wheat, although this was partially offset by cool temperatures and snow in western Nebraska and northern Colorado, which slowed wheat growth a bit. Showers in the northeastern Plains slowed spring wheat planting a bit.
MDA has increased its estimate for Hard Red Winter Wheat to 21 million tonnes, up 1mt from last week, due to acreage adjustments meaning the total 2014/15 US wheat production forecast is revised to 56mt, up 900 000t from last week but down from 58.7mt last week.
