As of Sunday, 52% of the crop was in good-to-excellent condition, up two percentage points from the prior week, and above the 47% rating at the same time last year.

Traders were expecting the rating to hold steady. The winter wheat crop's condition has been a concern, due to dry weather that has slowed development and ahead of cold weather that will push the crop into dormancy for the winter.

The report is not going to change market sentiment, but it does reflect improved conditions in the plains since the start of plantings, and shows Ohio crops are still struggling from excessive moisture, said Shawn McCambridge, senior grains analyst with Jefferies Bache in Chicago.

Oklahoma's good-to-excellent rating rose one percentage point from last week to 56%. In Texas, 25% of the crop was rated good-to-excellent, up 3 percentage points from last week.

"The improvement in Texas and Oklahoma ratings will ease some production concerns, but still illustrates a crop that will need some good spring weather to boost production prospects," McCambridge said

Plains states, such as Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, grow hard red winter wheat, used to make bread.

In Ohio, the top soft red winter-wheat growing state, the good-to-excellent rating dropped fourteen percentage points from last week to 36%. In Indiana, the rating rose one percentage point to 74%.

Ohio's ratings suffered from excessive moisture, but it is hard to assess potential crop losses in the fall, as good spring weather as the crop exits dormancy can abruptly change poor yield and quality outlooks, McCambridge said.

Overall, 92% of U.S. winter wheat had emerged from the ground as of Sunday, on par with the five-year average of 92% for this time of year, according to the USDA. A week ago, 87% of the crop had emerged.

-By Andrew Johnson Jr., Dow Jones Newswires; (312) 347-4604; andrew.johnsonjr@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 29, 2011 07:30 ET (12:30 GMT)