Drought conditions in the state have once again worsened, impacting crop quality going into the fall.
The USDA’s latest crop progress report shows some rainfall in northern Wisconsin has helped to improve the persistent arid conditions, but most of the state remains dry. Both topsoil and subsoil moisture levels declined over the past week.
According to the report, which covers the week ending Sept. 10, the condition of Wisconsin’s corn crop was rated 50 percent “good to excellent,” which is 4 percent lower than the previous week. Plus, soybean condition was rated 47 percent good to excellent — an 8 percent drop over the week.
Still, harvesting of several crops is proceeding ahead of last year’s rate and the five-year average.
The report shows the harvest of corn for silage as 18 percent complete, which is six days ahead of last year and one day ahead of the average. And 42 percent of the potato crop has been harvested, which is four days ahead of the average.
Plus, the fourth cutting of alfalfa was 69 percent complete — one day ahead of last year, and eight days ahead of the average.
Meanwhile, the National Integrated Drought Information System website shows drought conditions have gotten worse in Wisconsin over the past several weeks.
The percentage of the state experiencing “exceptional” drought conditions — the worst category — has risen from 0.7 percent on Aug. 22 to 2.4 percent as of yesterday. Over the same period, the percentage with “extreme” drought has grown from 10.6 percent to 22 percent.
The driest areas in the state are somewhat scattered, though the largest of these spans parts of southwestern and central Wisconsin. The exceptional drought zone covers parts of Crawford, Vernon, Richland, Sauk, Juneau and Monroe counties. Areas of extreme drought encircle that area, and are also located in the state’s northwestern, northern and south central regions.
Another 33.9 percent of the state is currently under severe drought conditions, while 26.3 percent is seeing moderate drought and 12.2 percent is abnormally dry.
A total of 4.2 million people in the state live in areas of drought, which is 5.4 percent higher than last week.
See the USDA report: https://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Wisconsin/Publications/Crop_Progress_&_Condition/2023/WI-Crop-Progress-09-11-23.pdf
See the NIDIS site: https://www.drought.gov/states/wisconsin
–By Alex Moe
