SOUTH AFRICA CROP WEATHER SUMMARY -- USDA/NOAA

  Dry weather pushed further into
  South Africa's Orange Free State's Maize Triangle in the week
  ended March 14, the Joint Agricultural Weather Facility of the
  U.S. Agriculture and Commerce Departments said.
      In a summary of its Weather and Crop Bulletin, the agency
  said scattered showers continued throughout Transvaal, but dry
  pockets persisted in the northeast and south.
      Temperatures average one to four degrees C above normal
  throughout all grain areas, stressing grain-filling corn in
  areas receiving lightest rainfall, it said.
      The agency said rainfall during February was near to above
  normal in most areas, but earlier periods of hot, dry weather
  reduced yield prospects in parts of the northern Transvaal and
  southern Orange Free State.
  

