The winter wheat crop as of last week was rated 58 percent in poor to very poor condition and 41 percent in fair to good condition. The National Weather Center Forecast Office says that the next three months will be warmer and drier than normal with no precusor signs that La Ni a is going to switch to El Ni a pattern. The next chance of a regular rain pattern returning to the state is forecasted for November-December 2000. Texans are looking north for hay supplies. The North Central Region has the second largest hay inventories over a decade.
Hay stocks are also large in the Western Region.
To assist in the search for hay the Texas Department of Agriculture has opened the Hay and Grazing Hotline to link livestock producers with available hay supplies for sale and pastures with available water supplies for lease. Texans are not the only ones short on hay. The Northeast Region is very short on hay with hay stocks about half the levels of just a decade ago. On December 1, hay stocks were reported to 5.119 million tons, down 27 percent for the Northeast. Both the New Jersey and Maryland Departments of Agriculture has requested hay from Ontario Hay Producers.