Little Rain, Big Risks Ahead for Wheat Crops Across US Plains

Welcome to Weather Watch, our weekly newsletter on how the planet’s ever wilder weather patterns are impacting the global economy. Got feedback and forecasts? Write us at weatherteam@bloomberg.net. And sign up here if you’re not on the list already.

Farmers across the Great Plains are confronting an intense drought that threatens winter wheat harvests and is pushing cattle producers toward costly feed purchases, prompting some to abandon plans to expand their herds.

The dryness is expected to persist through spring after weeks of scant rainfall and a late-winter heat spell that fueled massive pasture fires across the nation’s breadbasket. Drought now covers nearly 90% of Nebraska and Oklahoma, with more than half of Nebraska in “extreme” drought. Such conditions have historically driven cattle producers to sell off animals and forced farmers to drill new irrigation wells as rivers run dry.