REDFIELD, Iowa (DTN) -- Hot, dry conditions in a large portion of the country's beef states have led to deteriorating pasture and range conditions.

Most of the year, Missouri has had good pasture conditions, but over the past few weeks, a decline has been seen of 15 percentage points in the good-to-excellent category, pulling that number down to 47%. A 9-point increase was seen over the past week in the very-poor-to-poor category, marking that at 23%.

Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas also saw a decrease in the good-to-excellent category of 8 percentage points, 2 points and 3 points, respectively, bringing these states' ratings in the category to 23%, 7% and 10%, respectively. These states also saw an increase in the very-poor-to-poor category for pastures and range. Kansas saw a 9-point increase to 41%. Oklahoma saw an 8-point increase to 69%. Texas had a 5-point increase to have 60% of pasture and range in this category.

Comparing the U.S. Drought Monitor for these states over the past week has shown an increase in D1 to D4 drought conditions in each.

DTN Ag Meteorologist John Baranick said heat has been a problem across the Southern Plains since the beginning of August, which continues this week. However, relief is on the way.

"A front slipping southward should eliminate the 100-degree days, and those probably won't return, even if temperatures stay above normal going into next week," he said. "The fronts could bring some areas of showers and thunderstorms, but the Southern Plains need heavy rain to ease drought concerns and get pastures and ranges to start perking up again. This will be a slow process, I think, but we should have some opportunity for more rain as we go through September."

Some improvement has been seen in states that have suffered through the past few months, including Arizona, Colorado and on into the Upper Plains. Arizona saw an 11-percentage-point increase in good-to-excellent pasture conditions to mark 27%. Meanwhile, a 14-point decrease was seen in the very-poor-to-poor category, moving the state to 60%.

Colorado saw a 12-point increase in the good-to-excellent category, but still only has 18% of total pastures here. There was a 3-point drop in the percentage of pastures in the very-poor-to-poor category to get that total to 57%.

"We're in a weather pattern that is favoring Northern areas of the country with storm systems and fronts moving through, bringing areas of showers and thunderstorms," Baranick added. "We've got several that will move through the Northern half of the country through early next week that should bring some good rainfall in some areas. Iowa and the Upper Midwest look like they'll get the most overlap from the systems through early next week. But parts of the Northern and Central Plains and other spots in the Midwest could benefit as well."

Nationwide, pasture conditions are still worse than they were a year ago. The very poor and poor condition categories are at 24% and 29%, respectively, as compared to 13% and 22% in 2025. Good and excellent category conditions stand at 16% and 2%, respectively, while a year ago, those numbers were 28% and 8%, respectively.

	Very poor	Poor	Fair	Good	Excellent
48 States	24	29	29	16	2
Previous week	23	29	30	16	2
Previous year	13	22	29	28	8

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

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