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June 11, 2025
Carter County - Michael Hansen
Finally finished seeding Sunday night. Absolutely baffling...the field I put the sorghum into the dirt was muddy enough to pick up in the packer tires and just across the fence the willow creek is burning up. Hot dry and windy week more or less did most the older crops in lots of brown leaves in em now almost skipped the blue stage and just went for a quick death. Supposed to rain Wednesday night...if it doesn’t the swathers will hit the field full force and try to salvage what little green is left. Done spraying crop except for the sorghum if it comes up and the chickpeas when they get a little bigger.
Moisture conditions have been poor.
Planted Winter Wheat, Durum, Barley, Garbanzos, Oats, and Hay this growing season.
Winter Wheat is in the heading growth stage. Spring Wheat is the tillering growth stage. Barley is in the heading growth stage.
Fergus County - Boyd Heilig
The crops here in central Montana still look promising. Will need some rain soon otherwise things will turn backwards quickly. The winter wheat is about 60% headed.
Moisture conditions have been fair. We have not received any precipitation within the last week.
Planted Winter Wheat, Spring Wheat, Barley, and Canola this growing season.
Winter Wheat is in the heading growth stage. Spring Wheat is in the tillering growth stage. Barley is in the 4-leaf growth stage.
Fergus County - Robert Bold
No moisture for the week. When I was growing up, everyone waited until after the 4th of July to start haying. This year everyone waited until after the 4th to start haying...June that is. Swathers are running full bore getting what there is before the hay goes backwards. Hay production will be under average. Winter wheat is over 90% headed out. Very nice heads! Spring wheat done tillering and jointing. I thought my canary in the coal mine was going to come out his 3 year molt this week...nope. However, I see the report that 25% of new crop wheat has export sales. Way ahead of normal for this date. But the large carry over bushels is killing the price. The price run up started in 20 & 21 and topped out in 22. 21-22 wheat crop carryover was 20%. Today it is 55%. With USDA projections of the 25 wheat crop adding another 80 million bushels to the already bloated carry out. The writing will be on the wall at harvest. If the grain terminals are cash or contract only--price going up. The cool and damp weather in May killed off most of the first hatch hoppers. The second hatch is live and well...and hungry! Heard of some hopper spraying. Everything needs a good rain. Especially the shallow rooted pulse crops and recrop. Have a good Father's Day weekend.
Moisture conditions have been fair. We have not received any precipitation within the last week.
Planted Winter Wheat, Spring Wheat, and Hay this growing season.
Fergus/Wheatland/Judith Basin Counties - Paul Bradley
Finishing up spraying spring wheat this week!
Moisture conditions have been good. We have received .2 inches of precipitation within the last week.
85+ degree days with wind is going to be a killer.
Wild oats and buck wheat are both healthy this year.
Planted Winter Wheat, Spring Wheat and Canola this growing season.
Winter Wheat is in the booting growth stage. Spring Wheat is in the tillering growth stage.
Hill County - Eric Hanson
Too much heat and wind and not enough moisture. No rain this last week. Have been in the low to mid 90s...too much for the amount of rain we’ve had this year...and drying wind. Crops are starting to hurt. They are going backwards in lighter and poorer soil. The recrop is doing quite poor now. Winter wheat is trying to fill but out of moisture and has taken on a new shade. Chickpeas have stalled with lower leaves yellowing from the high temps and no soil moisture to fall back on. The last 3 days have really taken a toil. We are at the brink of going down a bad road. I tried to take pictures of the best areas I could find—too depressing elsewhere. But they keep saying we are suppose to start getting rain tonight and into tomorrow. A good drenching would still help immensely—as bad as things are starting to look, it ain’t over yet. Godspeed. The smoke has been thick coming down from Canada today. We drove through a good part of the Canadian prairies over the weekend for a family funeral and they are the driest I’ve seen in maybe the last 20 years. Some places better than others. Some crops not even emerged yet. A lot of places hadn’t seen more than a half inch this spring. But the northern part of Saskatchewan got a nice rain on Sunday. A lot of small grains versus the usual canola. For what it’s worth. Ditches hayed and in bales already around here. Saw one field of winter wheat out east being swathed for hay.
Moisture conditions have been poor. We have not received any precipitation within the last week.
Planted Winter Wheat, Spring Wheat, and Garbanzos this growing season.
Hill County - Trevor Wolery
#HolyAirball is the trend for the 2025 crops.
Winter wheat’s gas tank is on empty, spring crops holding on but need rain soon as we have only received 1.8” of precipitation from January 1 to date.
Sprayer is officially caught up on its work for the interim and the focus now will be to work on some projects that don’t cost any money, guess we go pick rock, nope that takes fuel, cheaper to stand at the shop door, chew on some nails, watch the crops wither and the markets tank.
Moisture conditions have been poor.
Planted Winter Wheat, Spring Wheat, Lentils, Garbanzos, and Mustard this growing season.
Judith Basin County - Greg Mathews
The BIG rain did not show up and the area only got 0.26 inches last Sunday and 0.10 inches on Monday. More to the north and south and east. Finished spraying SF again and all the bly and sw. The crops are holding on and the ww is starting to head out. The spring crops are starting to cover the ground. Need a rain, maybe Tuesday as the forecast predicts. OH HUM
Moisture conditions have been fair. We have received .36 inches of precipitation within the last week.
Planted Winter Wheat, Spring Wheat, Barley, and Hay this growing season.
Winter Wheat is in the booting growth stage. Spring Wheat is in the 4-leaf growth stage. Barley is in the 5-leaf growth stage.
June 4, 2025
Carter County - Michael Hansen
Down to seeding the sorghum so we are back right on schedule. Pulled cdrs out of replacement heifers...they sure are looking good with all the green grass. Noticed that there are a few grasshoppers starting you show up. So the hope that they had left is now a thing of the past. Barley and oats grew a lot in the last week. Won’t be long and they will need sprayed. Durum is looking pretty good as well, just need some nice days. Was 90 degrees on Sunday and that is a little too hot for this time of year. Ended up getting a little shower in the night so still haven’t been able to roll the last field of chickpeas. Getting calves branded and fences checked so cows can get to summer pasture. Not many left to calve just a handful from each bunch. Won’t be long and will be thinking about getting the swathers and balers out. Matlock winter wheat is heading out so with a decent middle of June rain that will be a crop and without it’s going to be 80 bushel straw and 30 bushel wheat as it really tillered and will run out of moisture before it gets filled. But we are used to that. Willow creek is in the boot and will definitely make some bales. First seeded hay barley won’t be far behind it...also is looking good. Hayfields on the creek still don’t look very good; probably won’t be any hay on them as they are about six inches tall and headed out...which doesn’t make any sense as much moisture as we’ve had.
Moisture conditions have been good. We have received .25 inches of precipitation within the last week.
Planting Winter Wheat, Durum, Barley, Garbanzos, Oats, and Hay this growing season.
Winter Wheat is in the heading growth stage. Spring Wheat is the 2-leaf growth stage. Barley is in the 2-leaf growth stage.
Fergus County - Brandon Udelhoven
We have finally gotten caught up on in crop herbicide. All the crops have been sprayed with the last of the pulses getting done this past weekend. We have been on the edge of some heavier rains once again but have gotten enough to save the winter wheat crop for the second or third time. The recrop wheat has shown stress in double seeded headlands and corners and all the gravelly spots got pretty blue with last week’s heat. Received a decent but spotty shower Monday morning giving us .30” and .65” depending on location; between that and the cooler weather the wheat has really perked up, but will need a few more good rains to finish the crop. The peas and lentils are looking fantastic, tons of yield potential if we can get timely showers and stay away from heat during bloom. Lentils are filling in the rows, really starting to branch out, and the peas are starting to gain some height. Wheat is in boot and heading stages, peas and lentils are 10+ nodes, and could be blooming inside of two weeks. Will start hauling rest of old crop next week to start making room in bins…hope I’ll need all the storage, time will tell. Will also be spraying grasshoppers off and on as needed. Looks like a few whole fields have been plagued by recently hatched, otherwise still appears to be pressure coming from the native sod.
Moisture conditions have been fair. We have received .35 to .70 inches or precipitation within the last week.
Pretty dry here, been on the razors edge for the last two weeks. Timely rain has saved us, but heat will push us backwards fast.
Planted Winter Wheat, Peas and Lentils this growing season.
Winter Wheat is in the booting growth stage.
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Fergus County - Robert Bold
Had a very nice slow, straight down rain Sunday. This morning (Tuesday 6/3) it was just gorgeous to hear the Canada geese, Sandhill Cranes, see the steam from the reservoir, and see the simultaneous frost glitter and water droplets on the grass...and no wind!! The winter wheat is loving this weather and shooting heads. The spring wheat is tillering and progressing rapidly. Both will need more rain to make a good crop. Our average precipitation for May is 2.71 inches. We did not get quite half. Just like April where we got about half of average...but the temperatures have been good and making up the difference. 4 years ago was dry as well, but it was record breaking heat. In '21 we had massive amounts of hoppers. This year there are a few around, but so far not threatening. We plan to start haying in less than a week. The hay is just at a standstill. If we move along fast, we will get what there is. As I said before, this area's hay crop will be okay, but below average. There is a lot of hay carry over in this area!
Moisture conditions have been fair. We have received .35 inches of precipitation within the last week.
Planted Winter Wheat, Spring Wheat, and Hay this growing season.
Winter Wheat is in the heading growth stage. Spring Wheat is in the 5-leaf growth stage.
Gallatin County - Dale Flikkema
Seeding finally finished.
Moisture conditions have been excellent. We have not received any precipitation within the last week.
Rain would be nice.
Planted Winter Wheat, Spring Wheat, Peas, Canola, Corn, Oats, Sunflowers, and Hay this growing season.
Winter Wheat is in the jointing growth stage. Spring Wheat is in the 4-leaf growth stage.
Hill County - Eric Hanson
The heat cranked up this last weekend. Had a couple days over 90 and some pretty good wind. Changed the landscape as well as the local attitude. The poorer ground really started to show stress in the crops. Winter wheat went a whole new shade of blue. Simply running out of moisture. Then Monday came in with temps in the 40s and a drizzle most the day. Nighttime temp was in the 30s. Only ended up with .15-.25” in moisture but it sure seemed to help. I’ll take 46 degrees with a drizzle over 93 degrees and a sizzle any day in May. These little showers keep stringing us along while we wait for a big one. Winter wheat is fully headed out except in the low spots. Spring wheat is rooting down and jumping in size. Have some more heat in the forecast next week around 90 degrees so we’ll see how everything hangs in there. A little spring wheat spraying left to do and back to farm projects/repairs.
Moisture conditions have been poor.
Concerned about drought.
Planted Winter Wheat, Spring Wheat, and Garbanzos this growing season.
Hill County - Trevor Wolery
.23 inches came unexpectedly Monday night with some soft serve ice in it. Nice to see the moisture but will not be enough to boost this winter wheat crop. Winter wheat is 80% headed, along with it being short and thin. So much potential for it last fall but couldn’t get off the ground and running without any May showers. My hollow stem variety doesn’t warrant a swath bill nor a harvest bill but yet enough crop there to not walk away from. Replanted lentils are now emerging and will need some timely rains to materialize. Main concern now is to get enough growth for cover. Mustard is just beginning early stages of flowering. Bridger Chick peas look good and probably ten days or so away from flowering. It has been a test of patience to complete our fallow job due to winds and weather but we are half way thru our fallow, then onto a DNS herbicide application.
Take a minute and talk to your neighbors, check in with them because we are all in this together. Tough conditions weigh heavy on the heart and mind.
Moisture conditions have been poor. We received .23 inches of precipitation within the last week.
Planted Winter Wheat, Spring Wheat, Lentils, Garbanzos, and Mustard this growing season.
Judith Basin County - Greg Mathews
No moisture last week and 2.14 inches for the month of April. Seeded the alfalfa this last week and will start spraying spring crops with a little wild oats and darnel coming and the typical weeds, fan weed, buckwheat, russian thistle and mustards this next week. Hopefully the big rain comes Sunday and Monday as forecasted the last of the month. Spring crops really grew last week and tired of the wind blowing too hard and drying things out. Grasses starting to head out, too early, making one wonder about how much hay there will be. Some have started putting hay up where there was cheat and others talking about starting this coming week, the first week of June... way to early. Hope to see every one at the MGGA golf tourney this coming week and reports of much needed rain for every one. Best to all and stay safe.
Moisture conditions have been poor.
Need rain!
Planted Winter Wheat, Spring Wheat, Barley, and Hay this growing season.
Winter Wheat is in the jointing growth stage. Spring Wheat is in the 3-leaf growth stage. Barley is in the 3-leaf growth stage.
Teton County - Mitch Konen
We have been staying rather busy out in the fields lately. Trying to get the spraying done between wind events. Also trying to get some ditches drug as we have also started irrigating. Have run the pivots to get some moisture in the ground as everything is getting really dry. Crops are hurting in the flood corners without water as we are trying to get to them with water. Irrigation demand has risen to the point that rationing has been implemented, which adds to the stress level of crops and human. We did receive some t-storm moisture last night with more in the forecast. Crops are advancing well in the tillering stage.
Moisture conditions have been fair. We have received .15 inches of precipitation within the last week.
Still remains rather dry and reliant on irrigation.
Planted Winter Wheat, Barley, and Hay this growing season.
Winter Wheat is in the heading growth stage. Barley is in the tillering growth stage.
