MINOT, North Dakota (Reuters) – Spring wheat crops in central and northwestern North Dakota were showing the effects of hot, dry conditions and yield prospects were down sharply from a year ago, scouts on an annual crop tour said Wednesday. “The early-planted stuff looks the toughest,” said Dave Green, executive vice president of the Wheat Quality Council, which runs the tour. Prospects were slightly better for later-planted wheat and crops in northern areas could still benefit from moisture, with harvest still a few weeks away. “The best scenario is to keep the temperatures from being too extreme,” Green said. Scouts in one car of the Wheat Quality Council tour traveling through Burleigh, McLean and Ward counties in west-central North Dakota…