According to the Oklahoma Mesonet, the past 30 days are the sixth driest on record for this period in the state of Oklahoma.
The situation is much more extreme in the western part of the state with the Panhandle, North Central, West Central and Southwest regions all reporting the driest total for this thirty-day period in 100 years of records. All of these regions reported less than 0.1 inches of rainfall for the period. Drought conditions have expanded rapidly across the state with the Drought.
Deteriorating range and pasture conditions reflect the lack of rainfall. The latest conditions show that 13 percent of pastures are in very poor condition, up from 5 percent four weeks ago.
Pastures in poor condition increased to 19 percent from 10 percent four weeks ago. Pastures in good to excellent condition dropped from 50 percent four weeks ago to 23 percent in the current data.
Winter wheat is an important winter forage in Oklahoma. The latest crop progress report shows that 69 percent of Oklahoma wheat is planted with 39 percent emerged, both ahead of the five-year average for this date.
However, rapidly drying soil moisture conditions means that wheat growth will stall out very soon without additional rainfall. Wheat planted recently may not have suffcient topsoil moisture to germinate. Diminishing wheat pasture prospects is limiting stocker cattle demand for winter grazing and will impact cow-calf producers who count on wheat forage as part of winter feed supplies.
Alfalfa hay, which makes up less than 13 percent of total Oklahoma hay production, is projected to be up about 7 percent year over year. In total, Oklahoma hay production is projected to be down nearly 12 percent in 2020.