This year’s first national look at pasture and rangeland shows conditions are at the lowest point this century.
They are seeing levels at 47 percent, which means nearly half the acreage is rated poor to very poor. USDA meteorologist, Brad Rippey says that the worst can be found in the western half of the country.
“We’ve never seen pasture conditions so poor as we start off the growing season... compared to this time a year ago, we saw pasture and rangeland conditions much better at this point. So, we’re 30 points higher than we saw a year ago, which was just 16 percent very poor to poor.”
The previous record set for pasture conditions at the start of the growing season was during 2013 at 36 percent poor to very poor.
Related:
Drought conditions in the west may be worse than the 2001 drought