REDFIELD, Iowa (DTN) -- The hot, dry weather conditions over much of the country is having a negative effect on pasture and range conditions.

The only major beef cow states seeing improved grass is in Montana and Florida, according to the latest USDA Crop Progress report released on Monday. Montana saw a 10% improvement in the good-to-excellent category and 17% fewer pastures in the very-poor-to-poor category. Florida saw a 19% improvement in good-to-excellent pastures and 6% fewer in the worst category.

Pasture and range in the center part of the country overall saw a decrease in good-to-excellent pastures and an increase in the very-poor-to-poor category, mostly because of extremely high temperatures and lack of moisture.

"It got hot yet again west of the Mississippi River over the weekend as temperatures climbed up to or over the 100-degree mark," said DTN Ag Meteorologist John Baranick. "It's been common for a while to have excessive heat. Even fronts coming through only change that tune for a little bit. A lot of that will continue here over the next week."

Baranick said a front will drop south and stall out in the Central Plains.

This will bring temperatures down and be a source for some precipitation events; weather models are unsure of how much moisture, but likely not a lot in most areas. Temperatures are expected to stay high both north and south of that front for the rest of the week.

The High Plains of Nebraska, Colorado and South Dakota continue to be areas of concern for cattle producers. Nebraska only has 9% of pasture and range in the good-to-excellent category and still has 66% marked very poor to poor. Colorado only has 2% of pastures on the good-to-excellent side, while 77% is very poor to poor. South Dakota's pastures saw the largest climb in the very-poor-to-poor ranking, to now 63%.

Midwest states are more of the same story for pasture conditions, but Baranick said a front coming through by the end of the week should help reduce heat stress -- although not necessarily through precipitation. "We should see some, but there will be some obvious winners and losers out of it. Areas in the Southeast should get more precipitation with the front stalling there," he added.

More widespread showers are expected across the country later in the week and into the weekend thanks to a stalled front in the Central Plains on Thursday that will continue to move into the Southeast at week's end.

"That could bring more widespread showers to the eastern Plains, western Midwest, down into the Delta and also the Southeast, but models aren't liking a whole lot of widespread heavy rain. We could see some of that heat in the Plains drifting over the Upper Midwest this weekend as the system departs, too," Baranick concluded.

The chart of overall conditions year-to-year shows mostly a decrease in pasture and range conditions during the past year, with more in the very-poor-to-poor category and less in the good-to-excellent category. This would be not only because of widespread drought, but also the numerous wildfires of considerable size seen in grazing areas.

	Very poor	Poor	Fair	Good	Excellent
48 States	21	21	29	25	4
Previous week	21	21	29	24	5
Previous year	9	17	29	34	11

Jennifer Carrico can be reached at jennifer.carrico@dtn.com

Follow her on social platform X @JennCattleGal

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