Monday’s USDA weekly crop update showed a slight dip in the good/excellent rating for the U.S. winter wheat crop, but overall crop conditions actually showed further slight improvement and crop development remained far ahead of normal in many areas.

Meanwhile, USDA reported that U.S. spring wheat planting continued to run well ahead of normal with spring wheat emergence also ahead.

USDA pegged U.S. winter wheat conditions at 63% good/excellent as of Sunday, down from 64% a week earlier, but the portion of the crop rated poor/very poor also dipped 1 percentage point to 10%, while the percentage rated excellent rose a point to 15%.

Winter wheat crop development continued to run 2-3 weeks ahead of normal, with USDA reporting that 42% of the U.S. crop was heading as of Sunday versus a five-year average of only 15%.

In the top winter wheat producing state of Kansas, 45% of the crop was heading against an average pace of just 2%, while in the traditional No. 2 growing state of Oklahoma, 89% of the crop was already heading against an average of 38%. Some 15% of the Oklahoma crop had reached the soft dough stage of development.

The SRW wheat crop is also coming on fast in states such as Missouri and Illinois with 69% of the Missouri crop heading against a five-year average of only 4% and 55% of the Illinois crop heading against an average of 1%.

SRW wheat crop conditions also recovered from the dip they took a week earlier as the crop suffered no lasting impact from a mid-April freeze.

U.S. spring wheat planting advanced to 57% complete as of Sunday, well ahead of last year’ s pace of only 6% and the five-year average of 19%. Planting was already winding down in South Dakota with 91% of the crop in the ground, while progress reached 45% in the top spring wheat state of North Dakota versus an average of 8%.

USDA put winter wheat emergence at 18% compared with only 2% a year earlier and an average pace of 4%.