Source: USDA'S NASS NC FIELD OFFICE, 4/3/17

DAYS SUITABLE FOR FIELD WORK  
This Week Last Week Last Year 5-Year Avg.  
4.9 6.0 5.0 4.8  

SOIL MOISTURE PERCENT
VS ST A SS
 Topsoil Moisture 3 20 72 5   
Subsoil Moisture 4 22 73 1              
VS= Very Short   ST = Short   A = Adequate   SS = Surplus    

CROP PROGRESS PERCENT – WITH COMPARISONS  
This  Week Last Week Last Year 5 Yr. Avg.   

NO DATA

CROP CONDITION PERCENT
VP P F G EX      
Barley 1 13 36 47 3       
Oats 1 4 33 60 2       
Pasture  2 13 41 43 1       
Strawberry 1 1 18 69 11       
Wheat 1 8 22 63 6                   
VP = Very Poor  P = Poor  F = Fair  G = Good   EX = Excellent

Winter Wheat freeze damage  55% none; 30 % Light; 12% moderate; 3 % severe

COUNTY EXTENSION AGENT REPORTS

Areas along the Blue Ridge Parkway received hail and some damage due to winds. Scattered rain across the county helped with the dry conditions. Heavy down pours caused some rutting to farm roads. Julia Houck – Ashe-Alleghany County Extension 

Weather conditions were quite mild for the week with highs reaching into the lower 70's and lows in the mid 30's. The county received a considerable amount of rain late in the week that limited field activity. Precipitation levels were variable across the county with most areas receiving between 1.5" - 2.5" of rain. Pastures and hay land is responding nicely to fertilization and renovation efforts. Stanley Holloway – Yancey County Extension 

Livestock producers are starting to run near the bottom of their hay supply, but feel they will be OK with pastures greening up now. They feel they have just enough to get through the rest of the spring, but will be close for many. Had 1.6" of rain during the last week, which is near normal for this period. Temperatures were nearly 7 degrees above normal.  Robert Hawk – Swain County Extension 

Still assessing wheat freeze damage, but may not be as bad as originally thought. Tim Hambrick – Forsyth County Extension 

Some corn has been planted but rains are preventing more. Wheat is beginning to grow rapidly with warmer temperatures.  Daniel Simpson – Pamlico County Extension 

Recent rains have soil moisture levels up.   Tim Britton – Johnston County Extension 


We have had some frost damage to strawberries, wheat, peaches and pasture areas. Danelle Cutting– Rowan County Extension  

Freeze damage we are getting rain 0/31/2017. Freeze damage in wheat seems worse in lower lying areas. Most wheat had some level of freeze damage and will be greatly reduces in yield. Tobacco transplant plants are short due to salts and freeze damage in green houses.  Gary Cross - Person County Extension  

Recent rains have improved small grains. Corn planting has begun and most of the tobacco land that is to be fumigated has been. Don Nicholson – Agronomist Region 7 

We had a devastating freeze the week of March 14-18. This destroyed nearly all of the peach crop, and decimated the blueberry Crop. This was in spite of the fact that growers did everything possible (wind machine, overhead irrigation) to protect their crops. The freeze was not early, but the bloom period was advanced by 3-4 weeks, due to the January chill hour accumulation, followed by a warm February. The cumulative effect of five consecutive nights of killing freeze, one of which an "advective" freeze with winds gusting above 20 mph, means that this freeze for blueberries and peaches will be as bad as 2007. Fortunately, much of the strawberry crop was protected by floating row cover. Taylor Williams – Moore County Extension 

Blueberry crop affected by March freezes - early crop heavily damaged, mid-season crop some damage, late crop some damage. Crop condition assessment still being performed. Bruce McLean – Bladen County Extension 

For the full report, click here.