Wheat is grown through the fall, winter, and spring in Kentucky because it likes cooler temperatures.

Soft Red Winter Wheat is planted in the fall, and Kentucky farmers harvest the wheat kernels in June. They then sell the grain to local flour mills or distilleries. 

Millers will clean and grind the wheat kernels into flour that can be made into grain foods. Siemer Milling, in Hopkinsville, supplies wheat flour for baking mixes and foods sold nation-wide. Wheat is also distilled for whiskey and bourbon recipes. 

Kentucky farmers harvested 29.3 million bushels of winter wheat from 390,000 acres in 2023.

The average yield was 75 bushels per acre. The 2023 crop was valued at $271 million.

The largest production year occurred in 2013, when Kentucky farmers produced 45.8 million bushels of winter wheat. 

(National Agriculture Statistics Service)

• Wheat is native to the Middle East, but is grown on more land than any other grain in the world. It is also the leading source of vegetable protein in human food.

• Seventy-five percent of US grain foods contain wheat.

• Wheat was first planted in North America by the English colonists.

• The top wheat producing states are North Dakota, Kansas, Montana, South Dakota, and Washington. Half of all U.S. wheat is exported.

• Thomas Jefferson was credited with bringing the first "macaroni" machine to America in 1789. Macaroni was a general term used for all pastas.

• One bushel of wheat weighs about 60 pounds, has 1 million kernels, and will make 90 one-pound loaves of whole wheat bread.

• Pre-sliced bread was not sold until 1930.