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September 4, 2001
North Dakota Crop Condition Update - September 2001
Summary
Summer crop conditions were generally better at the end of August 2001 than
last year across North Dakota. Warm and dry weather at months' end favored
spring grain harvesting and other field work. During much of the growing
season, cool weather and soggy soils hurt field work and interfered with crop
development. Analysis of satellite
imagery and other information shows that vegetation
(summer crops, hay and pasture) during August 2001 was greater than this same
time last year. Production of durum
and spring wheat is down in area and in yield from last year, along with production
and area of most summer crops. However, production, area planted, and
forecast yields of soybeans are up from last year.
Recent Weather
Frequent rainfall during mid-to-late July across eastern North Dakota increased the development of Fusarium head-blight or scab on spring wheat. Continued soggy weather into mid-August caused a further decline in spring wheat quality, and when combined with high-winds increased the incidence of lodging. Drier and warmer weather during mid-to-late August favored harvesting and other fieldwork as well as promoting summer crop development. (See precipitation and temperature graphs for Fargo and Bismarck, as well as rainfall graphs for the eastern North Dakota counties, north-central counties, and the central counties.)
Imagery
Slide 1 is a NOAA 16 satellite
image of North Dakota from August 27, 2001. The very good summer crops in
eastern North Dakota are indicated by the bright red. The tan areas are mature
and/or harvested small grains. The black and dark blue areas are
water. Notice the large "black area" in northwest Minnesota and
northeast North Dakota- these are fields that were washed out by heavy rains and
floods throughout the Spring and Summer.
Slide 2 is a
pair of NOAA satellite images from August 12 and 18, 2001. The very good crop
conditions in southeast North Dakota are evident, as well as the damaged fields in
Northwest Minnesota on the August 12 scene. The clouds across eastern
North Dakota on the August 16 scene are the western edge of a low pressure
system that brought rain and high winds to eastern North Dakota, interfering
with fieldwork and causing more spring wheat lodging.
Slide 3 and Slide
4 are Landsat images of Fargo and surrounding areas. The orange fields
are soybeans and the red fields are corn and sugarbeets. From the
intensity and uniformity of colors it is evident that summer crop
conditions in this area are much better this year than last. The gray
fields are mature spring grains. The light blue strips in the fields
illustrate that harvesting is underway.
Slide 5 is a Landsat image comparison from western Grand Forks County, comparing August 11, 2001 with August 8, 2000. Summer crop conditions are also better here, indicated by the more uniform and intense reds (corn, canola, and sugarbeets) and oranges (potatoes and soybeans). The pink and gray fields are maturing and mature spring wheat. Slide 6 is a Landsat image comparison from July, crop conditions were also better this year at that time.
Slide 7 is a Landsat image comparison from Burke County, in northwestern North Dakota, comparing August 7, 2001 with August 12, 2000. Crop conditions are about equal as evidenced from the imagery, but planted area is down, as evidenced by the increased green and light blue fields. Also, this year is much wetter, as evidenced by the increased area of standing water, the black areas.
For more information, contact Carl Gernazio of
the Production Estimates and Crop Assessment Division
at
202-690-0136 or by e-mail at gernazio@fas.usda.gov.
