By DTN Staff

OMAHA (DTN) -- Moisture across many of the top beef cow states helped improve pasture and range conditions, according to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service report for the week ended May 27, but drought continues to stress some of these major beef states.

Concerning areas for poor pasture and range conditions are continuing in the Southwest states. Nebraska had some moisture over the past week but still shows 51% in the very-poor-to-poor category with 3 points more in this area, but Nebraska is also 1 point better in the good-to-excellent condition, only reading at 17%.

The nation's No. 1 beef state, Texas, saw 9 points more in the very-poor-to-poor pasture and range conditions at 35%. Oklahoma also has 2 points more in the very-poor-to-poor at 12%. Wyoming moved 18 points out of the negative condition and is now at 29% in the very-poor-to-poor category.

Those in the Midwest states are starting to cut hay for stored feeds. Missouri has 86% of pasture and range in the good-to-excellent category, with Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin seeing improvement of conditions.

University of Missouri Extension Forage Specialist Carson Roberts provides important tips to get hay to dry down faster in years where rain is more frequent.

He recommends turning the knob to the widest setting on the swather to spread the hay thinner over a larger area. This allows for faster drying and curing and gets hay in baling condition sooner.

"You will notice that this changes the width of the windrow to expose more of the forage to the sun, which causes some bleaching," Roberts said in an extension news release. This might cause some minor bleaching but allows the hay to dry out and make higher quality hay faster.

DTN Ag Meteorologist John Baranick said the Midwest could continue to see isolated showers in localized areas the rest of this week. Warmer temperatures are expected in the coming week. "This may be the start of a drier trend that is forecast to increase throughout the month of June," he said.

Overall, the contiguous 48 states continue to show 13% of pastures ranked very poor, 20% ranked poor, 26% as fair, 32% at good, and 9% rated excellent. Overall, drought conditions continue in the pasture and range areas compared to last year.

Online users can click on the accompanying maps to see changes in various states.

National Pasture and Range Conditions (48 states)

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