Kentucky Ag News

 

Kentucky winter wheat yield hits new high

 

National Agricultural Statistics Service

 

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) released its Small Grains Summary Report today from the Small Grains Production Survey conducted in September.

 

“Good planting conditions, a mild winter, adequate moisture and almost ideal harvest weather led to a record high winter wheat yield of 80 bushels per acre,” said David Knopf, director of the NASS Eastern Mountain Regional Office in Kentucky. “It’s not a record production, but it is the fourth largest wheat crop in the Commonwealth.”

Kentucky farmers harvested 32 million bushels of winter wheat during the summer of 2016, according to the Kentucky Field Office of USDA'S National Agricultural Statistics Service. This was down slightly from the previous year and up 6 percent from the August forecast. Yield is estimated at 80 bushels per acre, up 7 bushels from 2015 and up 6 from the August forecast. Farmers seeded 510,000 acres last fall, down 50,000 acres from 2015. Area harvested for grain totaled 400,000 acres. Acres for other uses totaled 110,000 acres and was used as cover crop for tobacco, cut as hay, chopped for silage or abandoned.

Production of all wheat for the U.S. totaled 2.31 billion bushels, down slightly from the August 1 forecast and up 12 percent from 2015. Grain area totaled 43.9 million acres, down 7 percent from the previous year. The United States yield is estimated at 52.6 bushels per acre, unchanged from the August 1 forecast and up 9 bushels from last year. The levels of production and changes from 2015 by type are winter wheat, 1.67 billion bushels, up 22 percent; other spring wheat, 534 million bushels, down 11 percent, and durum wheat, 104 million bushels, up 24 percent.

To find out more about this and other Kentucky reports, visit nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Kentucky/Publications/Current_News_Release/index.php.