Chumrau: Winter Wheat Looks Good, Spring Remains A Question

As combines roll across Idaho, how is this year’s wheat crop fairing?

Casey Chumrau, Executive Director of Idaho Wheat said the 2022 crop is a little more variable than anticipated earlier this year.  She noted harvest started later than anticipated thanks to the cool, wet spring, meaning some operations are 1-3 weeks behind schedule.

“We are pretty happy with how the winter wheat is looking, the yields have been excellent in the early part of harvest.  The test weights are a little bit lower than what we’d like to see but, still really acceptable and so I think people are really optimistic about the winter wheat.”

What about this year's spring wheat crop?  Chumrau says much is still unknown.

“The multiyear drought really had dried out that subsoil and the spring rains that we had received just weren’t quite enough to recharge the moisture levels to help that spring wheat get all the way through this really high heat that we’ve seen in July and August.  So, it was looking really promising earlier in the year, but just not sure how that wheat is going to finish yet," Chumrau said.

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