The Canadian Wheat Board’s weather department provides regular updates of weather and crop conditions around the world.
Here are its latest findings, filled out with information from wire reports.
United States: Except for southern Texas, moisture conditions are good in most of the winter wheat areas. Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas all received normal to above-normal precipitation during March.
Light rains fell in Washington white winter wheat areas last week.
In the northern plains spring wheat areas, soil moisture is adequate to excessive. The southern Red River Valley is experiencing flooding after a wet fall and winter.
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Argentina: Soybean and corn harvest progress in Argentina is slightly lagging last year’s pace due to recent rains.
The weather has already affected in some areas the quality of sunseed, a competitor to canola in the world oilseed market.
So far soybean quality has not been hurt but drier weather is needed.
Brazil: Wet weather has also caused some harvest delays in parts of Brazil but large production losses are unlikely, said the CWB.
Corn harvest was 35 percent complete as of last week, compared to the five-year average of 31 percent.
Australia: Cyclone Vance washed over the country two weeks ago and there have been showers since.
Winter crop planting is still one to two months away in most areas, although parts of Queensland will begin seeding in a few weeks.
China: Dry weather returned to most winter wheat areas in the north of the Yangtze River during the past week, while light to heavy rains covered most of southeastern China for the third consecutive week.
Large areas in the north continued to suffer moisture stress.
Recent above-normal temperatures that had the winter wheat crop running ahead of normal, cooled last week and slowed crop growth.
Western Europe: Precipitation was general across the 15 countries of the European Union last week. Mediterranean countries benefited most from rain while northern areas have ample moisture.
Spanish and southwestern French durum areas received 20 to 25 millimetres of rain, while Italian durum rainfall varied from five to 20 mm. The rain was welcome in southern Spain, where dryness has been a problem since September.
Russia: Moisture is generally adequate but recent rains slowed spring field work.
Ukraine: Above-average rain and snow this winter mean soil moisture is now adequate for both winter crop growth and spring crop.
India/Pakistan: The region expects excellent crops this year and India is pondering the need for exports because it expects it won’t be able to store all the harvest.
South Africa: The country has suffered dry weather this winter.
Moderate rains last week coupled with cooler temperatures helped maintain crop conditions in the main corn growing regions.
North Africa: The region is a big durum buyer. Morocco has seen some dryness but Algeria has reported good weather for most of the winter. Most of the crop is heading across North Africa. Recent scattered rains helped the situation.
Iran: The country has suffered dryness and is expected to need more wheat imports this coming year. Rain fell in some areas last week, improving the situation.
Mexico: Rainfall was below average for much of this winter, but that had little impact on general farming activities. Rain will be needed later this season to support crops.
