Winter Wheat Production Forecast Up Four Percent from June

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) released its July Crop Production report today based on the Agricultural Yield Survey conducted at the beginning of the month.

Kentucky farmers expect to harvest 26.2 million bushels of winter wheat during 2017. The expected crop for 2017 would be down 18 percent from the previous year. The forecast was based on crop conditions as of July 1, and increased four percent from the June forecast. Growers expect a yield of 77 bushels per acre, down three bushels from 2016 and up five from June. Farmers seeded 460,000 acres last fall with 340,000 acres to be harvested for grain. Acres for other uses totaled 120,000 acres and will be used as a cover crop for tobacco or cut as silage or hay.

“Wheat fields that were harvested yielded surprisingly well,” said David Knopf, director of the NASS Eastern Mountain Regional Office in Kentucky. “Some of the acres seeded last fall suffered too much freeze damage and weren’t harvested as grain. NASS will survey farmers again in September to get their final acreage and production. If the current 77-bushel yield per acre forecast holds, it will be the second highest yield on record.”

Winter wheat production for the nation was forecast at 1.28 billion bushels, up two percent from the June 1 forecast and down 23 percent from 2016. Based on July 1, conditions, the United States yield is forecast at 49.7 bushels per acre, up 0.8 bushels from last month and down 5.6 bushels from last year. The expected area to be harvested for grain or seed totals 25.8 million acres, down 15 percent from last year.

All reports are available on the NASS website: https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/Calendar/reports_by_date.php.