1993 Montana Acriculturai. Statistics ^ ^ General 9 



MONTANA CROP, LIVESTOCK, AND WEATHER DIGEST, 1992 



January: Temperatures were well above normal with below normal precipitation. Almost all of grazing was 

 considered open. The winter wheat crop had little protective snow cover. Most of the winter wheat crop was in 

 fair to good condition. 



February: Warm weather continued with one-third of the winter wheat acreage breaking dormancy by month's 

 end, considerably ahead of normal. Almost two-thirds of the crop was in poor to fair condition and one-third in 

 good to excellent condition. Snow cover protection for winter wheat was gone in most areas. Grazing was 

 almost completely open. 



March: Warm weather continued with less than one-fifth of the winter wheat remaining in dormancy. About 

 one-fifth of the winter wheat acreage received moderate to heavy damage from winter kill or drought. Spring 

 tillage work got off to an early start. Calving and lambing continued under ideal conditions. 



April: Soils were mostly dry. Spring planting was considerably ahead of normal. 



May: Crops, pastures, and range grasses were stressed by heavy insect activity and lack of moisture. The heat 

 and dry soils pushed 46% of the winter wheat acreage into boot stage and 9% of the acreage was headed by 

 month's end. The pasture and range feed condition deteriorated and by month's end was 64% of normal. Stock 

 water supplies were reported in short supply in over half the state. Some ranchers were trimming back their 

 herds to match feed supplies. 



June: Overall, it was dry with some relief occurring in the middle of the month. Stress from the weather caused 

 small grain to mature and head-out ahead of normal. Pasture and range suffered especially in the north central 

 area. 



July: Wet, unseasonably cool weather improved the condition of crops, pasture and range. Moistvire proved 

 timely as much of the small grain crops were in, or about to begin the heading stage. Cool weather toward the 

 end of the month delayed ripening of small grains. Quality of some hay suffered as it was in the windrow 

 during the abnormally wet, cool weather. 



August: Near normal temperatures with scattered light precipitation gave way to below normal temperatures 

 and a sizeable increase in precipitation at the latter part of the month. Heavy snow fell in the northwest and 

 along the east slopes of the Rockies. Barley received moderate to heavy snow damage in about 50% of the 

 unharvested areas, while spring wheat received moderate to heavy snow damage in about 30% of the 

 unharvested areas. Freeze damage to unharvested hay acreage was 35% moderate to heavy. At month's end, 

 winter wheat harvest was behind normal. 



Septemben Near normal temperatures prevailed with unseasonably warm weather toward the end of the month. 

 Winter wheat seeding progress was slow the first two-thirds of the month as producers waited for a substantial 

 frost to kill infestations of Russian wheat aphids. Producers made excellent progress in seeding winter wheat 

 toward the close of the month. 



Octoben Temperatures were generally above normal. Good progress was made harvesting late season crops and 

 seeding winter wheat. By month's end progress of these activities was near normal. 



November Slightly above normal temperatures with dry conditions left soil moisture primarily short to 

 adequate. Snow cover protection for winter wheat was rated 85 percent poor. By mid-month 98 percent of the 

 winter wheat planted had emerged. Grazing was, for the most part, open. 



December. Colder than normal weather. Snow cover protection for winter wheat was fair to mostly good. 

 Grazing conditions deteriorated and by month's end was mostly difficult to closed with more than 90 percent of 

 the livestock receiving supplemental feed. 



