MGGA Weekly Crop Condition Survey

 

June 27, 2023

Carter County - Michael Hansen
Got all the cows moved to summer pasture finally. Branded another small bunch of late calvers. Canola is still blooming, looks really good for the year we’ve had. Barley also looks good. Durum seems a little thin but has started pollinating. Received another 2 inches of rain this week, so all the spring crops should have enough moisture to fill. Winter wheat is soft dough in some fields and pollinating in others. Willow creek really took off the last ten days, what looked like a summerfallow field when I sprayed it is now a decent looking hay crop. Have four hundred acres of hay ground with six to eight inches of water standing in it after the creek flooded, so should be able to make some hay bales there. Tore out another mile of fence. Wanted to haul wheat that’s been sold since March, but flour mill is full. Grasshoppers are really starting to appear in places. Moisture conditions are fair receiving 2" of precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat, durum, barley, canola, hay and sorghum.

  

Cascade County - Steve Sheffels
Overall, things are looking very good. The 'more than an inch' we had forecast for last week turned into 3/4" at the house in town and 1/4" on the farm. It's likely that some places on the farm might have gotten more. I find myself hoping for a little bit of heat to put some protein in the winter wheat balanced against not too much to keep the barley from drying out. The 10 day looks heartening with high 70's and low 80's for most of the period. Finished spraying the last little bit of summer fallow and the peas last week. Prep for harvest is coming along. Moisture conditions are excellent receiving .25" of percipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat, barley and peas. Winter wheat is filling and barley is heading. Insects showing up are sawflies and diseases starting to show are tan spots, but they should not affect the crop.

Chouteau County - Nathan Keane
Looking really good. Moisture conditions are good receiving 2" of precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat, canola, hay, barley, mustard, hemp and garbanzo beans. The winter wheat is in the soft dough stage and barley is filling. No major insect pressure right now. Pigweed showing up and some ascochyta in the chickpeas.

Fergus County - Robert Bold
It looks as though summer is here. The rain is beginning to taper off from our extended monsoon season--which is normal for our part of the world. We are about 2 to 3 inches of moisture above our average for this date. The cool nights are sure appreciated by the barley and wheat crops. Hoping the heat does not come in and spoil a good looking crop. Haying is beginning to get in full swing. Even though the ground is damp, when it is raked, the new windrow in on dry ground. Lots of inoculant being used. I would say the hay yield is average plus. Not a big run away, but much better than the last 3 years. I don't think hay prices are going to be very pricey this year. Done with the chem fallow for its second pass. Due to the lack of emergence last fall, it appears the barley will mature sooner than the winter wheat. Winter wheat is flowering to about done flowering. The barley is completely headed out and looking very good. My oats "canary" is either taking a breather after 5 or so weeks stronger or is indicating the price run is topping out. Trust me, I will know all about it by Labor Day weekend. Stay tuned. Moisture conditions are good with .85" of percipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat and barley. Both are filling.

Fergus County - Boyd Heilig
Things are still looking good here in central Montana. Winter wheat is filling and the spring crops are heading. Moisture conditions are excellent receiving .6" of precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat, spring wheat and barley. Winter wheat is filling, spring wheat and barley are heading. Grasshoppers a problem.

Hill County - Eric Hanson
Crops continue their journey to completion. The winter wheat is maturing into a decent looking bounty, fully headed and finding a new shade of color in the last few days. Peas are in full bloom and look picturesque. The first spring wheat seeded is fully headed now, and the rest isn’t far behind it. Hay is laid down in rows, more every day, and is not the thin, droughty swaths of the past 2 years. Another moderate week of temps and little to no rain. Until Saturday. A storm blew up right to the west of us and our yard was in the epicenter. It was 40 minutes of rain and small hail that amounted to nearly 2”. I’ve never seen anything like it. One mile to the north it was .54”, a mile and a half to the south only .25”. Rain was spotty from that small system. Some areas got nothing but sprinkles. But we got swamped. Minor flooding and gullies washed. What got that deluge is probably set for this growing season. And that memory is ingrained in my head. Heat in the forecast this weekend, hoping the white ice from the sky stays at bay. Have a safe and happy 4th! Moisture conditions are fair receiving 0-2" of percipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat and spring wheat.

    


Hill County - Trevor Wolery
Saturday afternoon delivered a fast and spotty rain storm leaving us with .9 and the neighbor who is 3 miles away with zero. Grasshoppers in the winter wheat will warrant a plane in the next few days. Mustard continues to flower and the barley is beginning to change color. Moisture conditions are good receiving .9" of percipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat, barley and mustard. Winter wheat is in the filling stage and barley is heading. Insects and weeds that are showing up are grasshoppers, kochia and Russian thistle.

       

Judith Basin County - Greg Mathews
A good week with 4 of 7 days getting some moisture. No big dumpers but small showers. Total 0.56. WW will be finished heading out this week, barley is in flag leaf to beards pushing out, The earliest barley is heading out and do not remember that happening before. Alfalfa booming, but with weather in the forecast cannot see swathing yet. Have to spray SF again if I can find a way around the wet spots or one field may have to call in the airplane, normal wet spot but the dumpers did not help either. Hope everybody gets a shot of rain before the first of July and the white combine stays away. Hail towards Showdown on Friday with 3 to 5 inches in 30 minutes. Big rains again on the North side of the Big Snowies. Moisture conditions are good with .56" of percipitation in the last week. Winter wheat is heading and barley is booting. 


McCone/Dawson County - Kurt Voss
Crops vary greatly with some being excellent and some being fair, just depending on timing of rains and crop stage when rains arrived, as rains have been quite varied. Grasshoppers remain a problem for the fourth year in a row. Most acres were sprayed with herbicide pass and now areas will need to be sprayed again as a new hatch has arrived. Grasshoppers are worse in rangeland than cropland at this time. Moisture conditions are good receiving 1.6" of percipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are spring wheat, lentils, hay, barley, corn, peas and oats. Spring wheat is jonting and barley is heading. Grasshoppers remain thick in areas with a new hatch arriving. 


Toole County - Korey Fauque
We are stuck in a drought here again with only 2.3” of rain since January. The crops are burning down pretty quick with the warm weather now. The peas actually look to be average with the small grains much below and the flax is just about to flower and looks ok, but really needs rain. Moisture conditions are poor receiving no percipitiation in the past week. Crops being grown are spring wheat, peas, barley and hay. Winter wheat and barley are heading, spring wheat is jointing. Barley disease is wide spread in our area.

    

     

June 20, 2023 

Carter County - Michael Hansen
Canola has started blooming, barley is heading out, and durum isn’t far behind. Branded two more bunches of calves this week. Got rained out on Thursday, ten percent chance turned into .5 to 1 inch. Winter wheat is filling, going to have to be seventy pound wheat to make up for the thin stand. Bred replacement heifers, good to have that chore done as they were sick of the chute the fourth time down it in a month. Sprayed some burndown for a neighbor that is planning on seeding sorghum now that it finally rained a little. Built a half mile of new fence as well. Afraid that won’t be the last, seeing there won’t be much hay to cut. Moisture conditions are fair receiving .5-1" of precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat, durum, barley, canola, hay and sorghum.

        


Chouteau County - Nathan Keane
Everything is looking really good. The rains we have been getting has made it fun to farm again! Moisture conditions are good receiving .1-.3" of precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat, canola, hay, barley, mustard, hemp and garbanzo beans. The winter wheat is filling and barley is heading. Insects showing up are grasshoppers, sawfly and flea beetles. Weeds popping up are kochia and Russian thistle. Disease starting to affect crops is ascochyta. 

Fergus County - Robert Bold
Well only another shortest nights of the year before they start getting longer. Crops are looking very good. Hope to get everything in the bin with green combines and not the white one. The chem fallow needs its second pass. Haying has lightly started. The showers and wet ground has kept most from doing much haying. Like an old time once said, the years with a good hay crop, it gets rained before it gets in the bale giving lower quality hay; on a dry year the hay is put up in good shape, just not much of it. Took the Brown Soil Moisture Probe out the other day. This spring we had 12 to 14 inches of soil moisture in our barley ground as well as our winter wheat ground. The drought from the two previous years gave no sub soil recharge. The barley after our May and June rains has 14 inches of soil moisture. The light stand of winter wheat (1/2 stand of winter wheat which is supposed to be better than a good stand of spring wheat), had only 8 inches of moisture before the probe did not go in any more. The heavy stand of winter wheat, was only 2 inches. That means that the winter wheat has used up our good May and June, to date, rains. The wheat heads look very good however. The chem fallow had over 30 inches of soil moisture--should be good winter wheat seeding. However, to my surprise, the summer fallow we are mechanically tilling, has about 5 to 6 inches of dust mulch and over 30 inches of just mud below the dust mulch. Surprised me. My father always stressed the importance of a good dust mulch. He practiced strip farming to prevent some of the prided dust mulch from the potential winter dust storms and real estate transfer. I see my "grain canary"--oats--has had a 38% price increase retracement in the last 5 weeks. Hopefully wheat has a 38% or more price increase as well. It also looks like the 62% wheat price decrease has held as floor for now. Moisture conditions are good receiving .4" of precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat and barley. Winter wheat and barley are heading.

Fergus County - Boyd Heilig
Things still look really good here in central Montana. The early spring wheat is heading and actually looks better than the winter wheat. Don’t remember when that has ever happened. Have had good moisture this week. Just over an inch. Grasshoppers are still hatching, but are not to the point of spraying. Prices have had a good run up again this past week. Nice to see. Moisture conditions are excellent receiving 1" of precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat, spring wheat and barley. Winter wheat is filling, spring wheat is heading and barley is jointing. Hoppers showing up,as well as tan spot.

Flathead County - Tryg Koch
Crops are pushing extremly fast. Canola is starting to flower and the tourists will be filling there facebook pages full of pics now!! Hay fields are getting cut, but with the rain showers moving through and the cooler temps it has been hard to get it dry. Flathead County has now been chosen as the dryest county in the state according to the drought monitor. We have been getting showers, but extremly low amounts at a time. Winter wheat is still looking good, but starting to show signs of getting thirsty! There are chances of some larger amounts of rain coming by the end of the week so we are keeping our fingers crossed! Moisture conditions are fair receiving .2" of precipitation in the last week. Crops being grown are winter wheat, canola, hay, hemp and mustard. Winter wheat is heading. Insect problems in canola.

Hill County - Eric Hanson
This summer has gone fast. The crops have grown fast with it. With what seemed to be a spring that put us way behind, here we are approaching the end of June already and that tardiness is starting to fade some. The winter wheat is fully headed, even in the later planted crops. It has started or is currently in bloom and starting to fill. Lots of stages out there. The spring wheat is headed that way fast as well, but not headed yet. Hoppers continue to put pressure on crops. Another cool week, but minimal rain of the measurable kind sure has us thinking we need some more sooner than later. Moisture conditions are fair receiving .1" of precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat and spring wheat. Grasshoppers are showing up.

Hill County - Trevor Wolery
.15" of precip on Father’s Day morning. Had to go after flea beetles in our later sown mustard this past week. All in all things look great in the Greater Goldstone Area, although it has been windy and cold with it being 35 degrees at some point during the night last night. Moisture conditions are good receiving .15" of precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat, barley and mustard. Winter wheat is filling and barley is heading. Flea beetles, grasshoppers, sawfly showing up, as well as kochia and thistle.

    

Judith Basin County - Greg Mathews
Tan spot showing up in more acres. WW heading out. Barley looks great. Hay looks great. Even the poor ww is looking better. Another good amount of rain on Sunday. South of Moore, water was running away. Was not home. Vegas was great temps till Sunday and Monday, then 90's. Moisture conditions are good. Crops being grown are winter wheat and barley. The winter wheat is heading and barley is jointing. Tan spot is showing up.

Northern Stillwater/Eastern Yellowstone - Michelle Jones
Slower week this week - airplanes took care of spraying all the winter wheat with another round of fungicide. The last of the barley was finally sprayed (good thing it was seeded late). Haying season start is still at a stand still. We did cut about 15 acres to test run the swather. 5 days later it’s still on the ground - unable to get dry. It also rained some last night so it’ll stay. Forecast doesn’t support cutting down anymore either with a decent chance of rain on Friday and early next week again. So we continue to wait. Otherwise, everything looks excellent. Moisture conditions are excellent receiving .1-.3" of precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat, spring wheat, safflower, barley and hay. Winter wheat is filling and barley is heading. Leaf diseases are starting to show.

Teton County - Mitch Konen
Crops progressing well. Started irrigating spring wheat and the pastures again. Moisture sure seems to be hanging on good as the barley is not stressed enough to see the old ditches. A little tough making sure they are dug in correctly. Spraying is done for most folks and irrigating is in process. But with another storm this weekend in the forecast, most are reluctant to start. Same feelings about haying. Some have started while most are waiting the outcome of this forecast. I missed last week as Klayton and I were in St. Louis for National Barley. Multiple stages of crops for the most part. Moisture conditions are excellent receiving .25" of precipitation in the past week, dependent on area. Crops being grown are winter wheat, spring wheat, barley and hay. Winter wheat is heading, spring wheat and barley are booting. Grasshoppers coming on strong, every imaginable weed and I can't name the diseases, but chem flash doesn't help.

       

     
 

June 13, 2023 

Carter County - Michael Hansen 
It finally rained, 2 inches over three days. Afraid it was a little too late for the winter wheat. It’s just too thin and short to make any sort of decent crop. Seeded some sorghum for the neighbor. Sprayed my sorghum for hoppers. Moved yearling steers to a new pasture, they sure look good. Moisture conditions are poor receiving 2" of precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat, durum, barley, canola, hay and sorghum.
 

Cascade County - Steve Sheffels
At the risk of giving us a huge jinx, this is some of the best winter wheat I have ever seen. The barley looks good too. The peas got in late and those that haven't drowned look good. The summer fallow that got sprayed before the rains looks very good. The summer fallow that we haven't gotten to yet looks really green. Hopefully, this week will have it get dry enough to finish spraying. Moisture conditions are excellent receiving .7" of precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat, barley and peas. Winter wheat is heading and barley is tillering.

Chouteau County - Lochiel Edwards
Crops are focused on making up for lost time, after a late start. My September wheat is filling, my Halloween wheat is in various stages of boot, and spring wheat is starting to joint. The winterwheat will never be anything to write home about, but spring crops of all persuasions look great on Lonesome Prairie. Somewhere north of Fort Benton, there’s a line delineating fantastic winterwheat from regrets over not reseeding to spring grain. But, with minimal moisture this past week, the fate of our spring crops remains occluded. Beautiful days and green countryside make for smiles in the neighborhood! Moisture conditions are good receiving .18" of precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat and spring wheat. Winter wheat is filling and spring wheat is jointing. Hoppers and sawflies showing up, as well as mustard and cheat.


Chouteau County - Nathan Keane
Everything is looking really good. The rains we have been getting has turned our crops into just about struggling to some really big potential for good yields. Moisture conditions are good receiving .45- 1.3" of precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat, barley, canola, mustard, garbanzos, hemp and hay. Winter wheat is heading and barley is jointing. Grasshoppers and sawflies are showing up as well as kochia, Russian thistle, pigweed and lambsquarter; no diseases so far.

    

Chouteau County - Tanner Works
The crop season is progressing excellently in our area. Moisture conditions are excellent with 1" of precipitation in the last week. Crops being grown are winter wheat, spring wheat and barley. Winter wheat is heading, while barley and spring wheat are tillering. Grasshoppers and cheatgrass are showing up. 

Fergus County - Robert Bold
Good moisture so far this growing season. Our barley is just going gang busters. 35 days from the air drill tank to flag leaf. The Corteva people here were giving me some scientific information that was above my pay scale. The amount of carbon the barley crop is using and capturing every day was almost unbelievable in its daily C3 and C4 carbon requirements. All primarily out of the atmosphere. We just finished aerial spraying the barley due to the wet and soft fields. First time we had aerial application in over 30 years. But if we did not do the spraying then, the crop may be getting too advanced. I hate to put any herbicide on a flag leaf. Fungicide yes, herbicide no. Our average May precipitation is 2.72 inches. This year 4.35. Not a record breaker. For June, 3.33 inches is average. We are at that now. Again no record breaker to date. 1932 was the record year with 4.48 inches the first 10 days of June. Our top soil is saturated and run off like the ground is froze is beginning to take place. Have you seen BNSF's grain cars parked west of Glendive? There are miles of them. Without counting, thousands of cars. Not a good sign for grain delivery to export terminals. Moisture conditions are good receiving a couple of inches of precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat and barley. Winter wheat, spring wheat and barley are all booting. There are a few hoppers showing up, but mostly in the hay fields. 

Fergus County - Boyd Heilig
This past week we have been seeing a bad outbreak of tan spot and septoria on some of our winter wheat varieties. Had to spray about 600 acres of fungicide before it headed out. Heavy dew in the mornings and rain in the afternoons made for the perfect environment for the disease. The variety of wheat made a big difference on how bad it was. The spring crops in the area are phenomenal. Just finished spraying yesterday. The grasshoppers are getting bad in some areas and some farmers are having to start spraying them. Moisture conditions are excellent receiving 2.5" of precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat, spring wheat and barley. Winter wheat is heading, spring wheat is tillering and the barley is in the 5-leaf growth stage. Grasshoppers are starting to emerge, with normal broadleaf weeds starting to show. Dealing with tan spot and septoria diseases.
 
 

Flathead County - Tryg Koch
Crops are pulling hard!! We need a good rain soon! Ridges are going backwards in the hay fields, the conventionally tilled ground is starting to show signs of stress. There is spring wheat already heading out and is ahead of some winter wheat. The no-till ground is still holding in strong but it could definitely use a good drink. Hay fields are starting to get knocked down, but for us there is still too many rain showers predicted for the next 10 days too cut any. Moisture conditions are fair receiving .25" of precipitation in the last week. Crops being grown are winter wheat, canola, hay and mustard. The winter wheat is heading.




Gallatin County - Dale Flikkema
Crops are doing well. Moisture conditions are excellent. Crops being grown are winter wheat, spring wheat, barley, lentils, canola, hemp, corn, sunflowers and hay. Winter wheat is booting and spring wheat and barley are jointing.

Hill County - Eric Hanson
What a dramatic change to the landscape compared to the two previous years. It just takes water. And more water we got. This round came with a show. Clouds building big and high into the sky, thunder and lightning, and heavy rain at times. Or maybe nothing a quarter mile away. Amounts were all over the board, from 2/10th to nearly 3” in our area. Just depended on which cloud landed on you. These crops don’t know how spoiled they’ve been. Everything continues to look good, if not excellent. And boy did things grow yesterday. Sun, 82 degrees, and all that rain; what a combo for photosynthesis! Spring wheat spraying is wrapping up and then back to mowing and spraying other weeds that seem to be everywhere you look this year. Hoppers are gaining steam and doing damage in areas. Mosquitoes are still thick. Some haying has started, a bit early for here, and looks to be considerably better than last season already. Approaching the summer solstice and the days will start shrinking. We will start screaming towards harvest, believe it or not. Something we might actually look forward to up here this year! Moisture conditions are good receiving .2-3" of precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat and spring wheat. Winter wheat is heading.

    

Hill County - Ben Peterson
Things are looking really good, perhaps a little behind normal, but very good. Moisture conditions are excellent receiving 1.5" of precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat, spring wheat, barley, peas, hay and mustard. Winter wheat is booting, spring wheat and barley are tillering. Insects showing up are flea beetles with kochia also showing up.
 
     

Hill County - Trevor Wolery
Received .92 over the weekend. Things look amazingly well with the moisture this spring. Finished fallow this morning and now will focus attention towards later sown mustard with flea beetle. HRW is heading, barley has its flag leaf out and earlier sown mustard is flowering. Moisture conditions are good receiving .92" of precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat, barley and mustard. Winter wheat is heading and barley is tillering. Grasshoppers and flea beetles showing up and the whole spectrum of weeds as well.

   

Judith Basin County - Greg Mathews
It has been a good week with some more rain and a little flash flooding on Saturday from the west end of the Snowies, .75" rain or more in 45 minutes. The grasses are heading out and looking good and the alfalfa looks great. The ww in the Moore area and south of there are having some tan spot problems and the sprayers are running it over to get ahead of the problem. Have not seen any in my area but 6 miles away it is there. Turned great looking wheat to ugly looking in just a few days. 3 days of rain this last week: .35 Thur, .34 Fri, .17 Sat; for a total of 0.86". North, east and south areas got more. North side of the Snowies got 3 to 4 days of 1.5 to 2 inch plus rains each day and some flooding. Field work was down to a couple of days last week and getting a little behind. Moisture conditions are good receiving .86" of precipitation in the last week. Crops being grown are winter wheat and barley. The winter wheat is booting and the spring wheat is tillering. Following the rain, the chem fallow is starting to green up. Also showing up are wild oats, Russian thistle, prickly pear, fan weed, water pod and kochia. 


McCone/Dawson County - Trevor Schock
We just finished up seeding on Tuesday. Many in the area were wrapping up this week if they haven't already. We also were able to finish up spreading fertilizer on the last seeded wheat and the second round of split applications now that co-ops got caught back up on their incoming loads, are trying to empty out for the season. We have finished up in crop herbicide application for the peas and mustard and are making good progress on spring wheat. Grasshoppers are everywhere. Grass in yards and field edges are completely loaded up with uncountable tiny grasshoppers that are ranging from just hatched to 3/4" long. All in crop apps have had insecticide for grasshoppers added in and we have been spraying field edges on later seeded wheat that won't be sprayed for a week or so. They have been stripping weeds in chem fallow fields and early tansy mustard that are on the edges (see picture) and working into fields. There have been spotty storms that keep some areas fairly moist while others are getting dry. The area could go for nice general rain, but overall crops are growing fast and progressing well if they can survive the grasshoppers. Moisture conditions are fair receiving .2" of precipitaion in the last week. Crops being grown are spring wheat, peas and mustard. Spring wheat is in the 3-leaf stage growth stage. Grasshoppers, kochia, pigeon grass and buckwheat are showing up.

 


Northern Stillwater/Eastern Yellowstone - Michelle Jones
It’s never been greener - after the rain finally stopped last week we had a range from 4-6” total. Since then we’ve added a range of roughly 0.5 to somewhere north of 2”. Added a poor quality airplane picture from 6/8 as I flew to Seattle. None of that water was there 2 weeks ago - and you could tell it was already 1/3 of what it was when the flash flood came through the night before. This was just west of Molt. These storms have been highly variable and also highly destructive if you’re under the wrong spot. We’ve been on the edge of all of them this week…which means we haven’t been ruined by serious flash flooding and/or hail. On the crop front - as was expected to a certain degree - leaf diseases have exploded and we’re scrambling up planes this week to nip that. All of our wheat had a fungicide put down when we sprayed the crop…but most need another dose. The 406 (see yellow picture) will be permanently removed from our rotation due to the level of disease it has acquired. The other varieties - particularly Keldin have faired much better (the picture that’s not all yellow). The barley looks outstanding. Really solid year to have a decent amount of barley in. And the safflower looks great as well. Most guys are delaying haying - a) because the grounds too wet and b) storms all week…and lastly c) it’s basically growing a second cutting underneath the first at this point so they’re letting it all stretch up and the original go to full bloom. Will be an interesting hay year for sure. Some of the alfalfa had what was thought to be irreversible drought stress before it started raining, but these conditions are unprecedented so we’ll see. And last, after 2.5 years of very dry and then relatively dry conditions…the tow ropes are getting some use because people have forgotten that you can’t just bail off into any field you want anymore or down any road you want. Not a bad problem to have again. Moisture conditions are excellent receiving a little to a lot of precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat, spring wheat, safflower, barley and hay. Winter wheat is heading and barley is booting.

     


Teton County - Levi Ostberg
Moisture conditions are good receiving 1" of precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat, hay and barley. Winter wheat is filling and barley is tillering. A lot of grasshoppers showing up, as well as some sawfly. Wild oats, kochia and lambsquarter have been noticed in the barley.

      

Toole County - Klayton Lohr
Crop is looking good for now. About 50% of spring wheat has been sprayed. Moisture conditions are fair receiving 1.58" of precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are spring wheat, durum and mustard. Grasshoppers and lots of kochia have been showing up. 

 

Valley/Daniels County - Rob Davis
Early crops seeded are doing great, later seeded crops are coming along nicely. Grasshoppers are starting to appear, though they are little and not doing damage yet. The grass is green and tall and hopefully will keep them entertained for a while, although some spraying is taking place. Crop spraying is about 50% done and with the spread out, seeding is fairly easy to keep up with. It is great to see green fields, not blue like we were unfortunately getting used to! Moisture conditions are excellent receiving 1-4" in the past week depending on location. Crops being grown are spring wheat, durum, peas and lentils. Spring wheat is in the 3-leaf growth stage. Grasshoppers are showing up.

     
 

June 6, 2023 

Carter County - Michael Hansen 
Sprayed barley, durum and canola this week. Sprayed out a thousand acres of winter wheat for the neighbor. Tried killing grasshoppers in sorghum, probably a waste of time and money as the fields are the only green areas left. First week of June looks like the last week of August. 90 degrees and thirty mile an hour wind today could watch the color leave everything. Moisture conditions are poor receiving .1" of precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat, durum, barley, canola, hay and sorghum. 

Cascade County - Steve Sheffels
All crops are looking good to excellent. Significant rainfall is preventing summer fallow from getting sprayed. Moisture conditions are excellent receiving 1.75" of precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat, barley and peas. Winter wheat is heading and barley is in the 4-leaf growth stage.

Chouteau County - Lochiel Edwards
Lonesome Prairie is looking much better, following the Memorial Day rain. Here at Edwardsfarm, the September seeded winterwheat spent the last couple weeks of May dropping tillers, and was pushed to the boot before its time. That wheat is mostly headed; those heads look good but are spaced way too far apart. Late October seeding is starting to boot- destination unknown. Spring wheat, at 5-leaf, has not seen hard times and thinks it is entitled to a weekly rain. Storm cells moved through the Big Sandy area this past week, and precip amounts varied, but here at our fieldhouse we received 1.01. I noticed the first sawfly emergence 7 days ago. Moisture conditions are good receiving 1.01" of precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat and spring wheat. Winter wheat is heading and spring wheat is in the 5-leaf growth stage. Hoppers and sawflies showing up, as well as mustard and cheat.


Chouteau County - Nathan Keane
Everything looks really good right now. Our winter wheat is heading out. Our barley is getting big. Our mustard looks really good, same with our canola, hemp and chickpeas. Moisture conditions are good receiving .69-1.35" of precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat, barley, canola, mustard, garbanzos, hemp and hay. Winter wheat is heading and barley is in the 5-leaf growth stage. Grasshoppers and sawflies are showing up as well as kochia, Russian thistle, pigweed and lambsquarter; no diseases so far.

Fergus County - Robert Bold
This past few weeks, actually most of May, has been different from the last 3 or 4 years. I have not seen a soaking soil moisture building rain like this since 2018. We have received 4.36 inches of rain this May and 5.55 inches of moisture since Jan 1st. The barley is whiskey bottle high (so drink lots of beer) and needs to be sprayed. We are going to leave wheel tracks, but what is the alternative? Haying is going to start some time next week. Will be windrows this year. Looking further back at the price of winter wheat, I see the price retraced 62%. That becomes either a price floor and prices go up or a price ceiling if the market continues to fall. With freight and handing charges, at the port, I see soft red is $248/MT--or $ 6.75/bu. HRW $348/MT or $9.78/bu. Russia and Ukraine hard wheat $215 to $220/MT or about $5.90/bu. I can see why the grain piles in our area were picked up late. So far no hoppers, but a lot of reports north and south of us. Some of our chem fallow is a mess, but for the most part "under control" of moment. Moisture conditions are good receiving .97" of precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat and barley. Winter wheat is tillering and barley is jointing.

Fergus County - Boyd Heilig
Things are looking very good for this time of year. We were lucky enough to receive over 3 inches of rain this past weekend without any hail damage. The Lewistown and Grass Range area had some severe weather over that time period. The winter wheat should be heading out by the end of the week. The spring crops are also progressing nicely. About half done spraying. Moisture conditions are excellent receiving 3.5" of precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat, spring wheat and barley. Winter wheat is booting, spring wheat is in the 4-leaf growth stage and barley is in the 3-leaf growth stage. Grasshoppers are starting to emerge.

 

Hill County - Eric Hanson
Beautiful and muggy yesterday. Big clouds painting the sky, building high, high up; those quintessential storm clouds that usually mean one thing. No hail here though, just near perfect growing days so far. Today, wind and smoke from Canada again. Last week we made a hard push to finish the chemfallow ahead of a long forecasted rain event. Fell just short of getting finished, but glad the rain finally showed up Saturday morning. Received an absolute gift of a rain coming in at .90-1.29”. It was time, and timely it was. The winter wheat was thirsty. It has started heading out in many of the fields, barely behind the odd cheatgrass that had to make an appearance. It’s been all but dormant for the last few years of drought, so I’m not surprised it showed up. The spring wheat is ready to be sprayed. Weeds, just like the crops, are loving the moisture this year. A little scouting and prep and we’ll be making tracks in it by weeks end, weather permitting. It continues to look good and is growing fast. Moisture conditions are good receiving .90-1.29" of precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat and spring wheat. Winter wheat is heading. Mosquitoes and tiny hoppers are showing up, as well as all the weeds.

Hill County - Trevor Wolery
Our total precipitation for the month of May is at 2” with an additional .98 this Saturday. All crops look great at this moment in time. Truly amazing what water can do for one’s attitude. Continuing to work on fallow around here in between the breezes. Everyone stay safe! Moisture conditions are good receiving .98" of precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat, barley and mustard. Winter wheat is booting and barley is tillering.

    

Judith Basin County - Greg Mathews
The monsoon season hit Central Montana this last week with amounts from 2.50 inches to over 6 inches of rain, with a little hail in the Lewistown area as well as some flooding. The hay and ww crops are looking very good as well as the hay crops. Next year at the MGGA golf tourney maybe some one needs to bring wet suits for the golfers as they golfed in a steady and very wet day. If you missed the dinner and calcutta you missed a great meal and a very funny and exciting calcutta. Sarge did a excellent job and was very entertaining A great time for all that showed up. Finished spraying the spring crops on Tuesday just in time for the rains. Hope everybody as least received some rain. Moisture conditions are excellent receiving rain on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday for a total of 2.71": .11", .14", 2.05" and .41". Reports of grasshoppers showing up in areas, but hopefully wet damp weather and rains wiped them out. Saw some cheat headed out in some WW and wild oats and the normal weeds in the spring crops. Fan weed, mustard, water pod, buck wheat, and a little Russian thistle. 


Northern Stillwater/Eastern Yellowstone - Michelle Jones
After largely getting missed by the Memorial Day rains - especially east of Broadview - which while disappointing at the time wasn’t all bad. The storms that missed just north and east were not the kind you want. Flash flooding and tons of hail. That’s all been washed away by this week’s rains. These were more general rains - but we’ve topped out over 5” on the west side of Broadview. Depending on where you’re standing on the east side they’re largely around 3.5-4.5” … some likely over 5. More rain than I’ve ever seen in a 48 hour period. The relative slowness at which it fell was excellent - the ground took in a huge percentage of it. The creeks and lowlands are full now but the water didn’t really start running until we topped 4”. So that’ll probably take care of the winter wheat - which largely looked excellent before. A second fungicide application might be needed at this point. Barley, safflower, alfalfa seedings also all look excellent. The only crop that was showing some irreversible damage prior to the rains was alfalfa in the dry areas. Even it as Lochiel says “has a much better attitude today” than Wednesday. Moisture conditions are excellent receiving 4.5+" of precipitation in the past week . Crops being grown are winter wheat, spring wheat, safflower, barley and hay. Winter wheat is booting, spring wheat and barley are tillering.


Teton County - Mitch Konen
Predominate mode of travel lately is the sprayer. The wings on wheels are seen everywhere between rain clouds. Winter wheat is fully flagged and beginning to head out. Spring wheat is tillering strong as are the wild oats. Barley is rowing up nicely and beginning to canopy. The early grasses are heading out while the warm season grasses are in full vegetative growth with the recent moisture. I should have paid my property taxes under protest until the county gets some roads graded. Some of the roads on the bench are near impassable with the recent moisture and haven't seen a blade in over a year making for dangerous travel between fields with our equipment. Can't seem to get more than a day or two at a time of open weather to get some field work done. This just drags chores out and requires a rush to get things done when the conditions are ideal. But all in all crops are looking great. Moisture conditions are excellent receiving .26- 1.0" of precipitation in the past week, dependent on area. Crops being grown are winter wheat, spring wheat, barley and hay. Winter wheat is heading, spring wheat is jointing and barley is in the 3-leaf growth stage. Mosquitoes and a few grasshoppers showing up, as well as wild oats, cheatgrass, lambsquarter, kochia and sowthistle.

       

Toole County - Klayton Lohr
Everything has emerged. Moisture conditions are fair receiving .3" of precipatation in the past week. Crops being grown are spring wheat, durum and mustard. Spring wheat is in the 1-leaf stage growth stage. Grasshoppers and kochia showing up. Everything has emerged. Moisture conditions are fair receiving .3" of precipatation in the past week. Crops being grown are spring wheat, durum and mustard. Spring wheat is in the 1-leaf stage growth stage. Grasshoppers and kochia showing up.