Thursday morning was crop report morning this week with the USDA releasing the first supply and demand numbers of the new marketing year as well as the latest crop production numbers.
Here’s how winter wheat production looks on the national level…
Winter wheat production is forecast at 1.69 billion bushels, up 13 percent from 2011. The area expected to be harvested for grain or seed totals 35.6 million acres, up 10 percent from last year. Based on May 1 conditions, the United States yield is forecast at 47.6 bushels per acre, up 1.4 bushels from last year.
Hard Red Winter, at 1.03 billion bushels, is up 32 percent from 2011. Soft Red Winter, at 428 million bushels, is down 6 percent from last year. White Winter is down 9 percent from last year and now totals 233 million bushels. Of this total, 14.1 million bushels are Hard White and 219 million bushels are Soft White.
Here is the winter wheat production forecast across our region…
Montana is expected to harvest 2.12 million acres of wheat in 2012 compared to 2011’s 2.19 million. Early calls are that the yield will be 40 bushels per acre (bpa), slightly lower than last year’s 41. This would result in 84.8 million bushels compared to 2011’s 89.79.
North Dakota winter wheat acres are nearly doubled, jumping from 2011’s 375,000 to this year’s 720,000. Yield per acre is expected to be at 48 bushels. This is up sharply from last year’s 37. This would total up to 34.56 million bushels compared to last year’s 13.875.
South Dakota winter wheat acreage is down slightly at 1.3 million compared to 2011’s 1.59. The average yield per acre is forecast at 44 compared to last year’s 42. This adds up to 57.2 million bushels. That is down from last year’s 66.78 million.
No official numbers were given for Wyoming winter wheat or this year’s spring wheat and durum. CLICK HERE to see the full USDA crop production report.
© Northern Ag Network 2012
Haylie Shipp
