There’s trouble brewing for the industry right now with recordings showing barley conditions at their lowest year on record. The latest U.S. Drought Monitor shows 80 percent of the nation’s barley crop is in drought.

Between the heat hitting locations that are not ever hit this hard by the warmth and lack of rain, the combination is taking a toll on the U.S. barley crop this year, something that can be a hindrance to a main component in beer making.

“This has already taken a severe toll on spring sown crops that are primarily grown in the north like spring wheat and barley,” says Rippey. “We’re seeing our lowest crop conditions of the century, which is only two decades old, but still lowest crop conditions of the century, for spring wheat for barley across the Northern Plains,” said USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey. He also says that the 2021 barley condition rating is “off-the-charts bad,” with the four previous worst conditions of the 21st century showing up in 2001, 2002, 2006, and 2017.

The latest USDA Crop Progress report was released earlier this week showing 22 percent of the U.S. barley crop is in good to excellent condition, the top two rating categories. USDA says 39% of the crop is now rated poor to very poor. Washington is in the worst shape, with only 1% of the crop rated good to excellent. North Dakota’s crop sits at 14% good to excellent, a two point drop in a week. Crop conditions indicate small grains in the northern tier of states will continue to produce production problems this year.

“The picture is similar all through the West,” said Rippey. “Burnt up rangeland and pastures and dryland crops are in really rough shape due to the lack of moisture.”

“The problem with wheat is a big problem,” Grisafi told U.S. Farm Report. “And if anyone is in Chicago, New York or trading a hedge fund, and they watch it rain in North Dakota and think it’s going to save the wheat … for the crop that’s dead, it’s dead,” he said. “North Dakota’s corn has a pretty good chance here of making a decent crop with a couple more spoon fed rains,” he adds. “Soybeans have a chance, too, but we’re not quite there yet. We need some August weather to have a better idea.”