PNW Wheat Farmers Lead in National Wheat Yield Contest

Farmers across Washington, Oregon, and Idaho proved their fields of gold are gold medal worthy in three of the four National Wheat Yield Contest categories.

The National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) announced 24 winners in the contest, from 12 states, averaging 144 bushels per acre, while also recognizing 83 state winners across 28 states with an average of 127 bushels per acre. The National Wheat Yield Contest is broken into four categories: Winter Wheat - Dryland, Winter Wheat - Irrigated, Spring Wheat - Dryland, Spring Wheat - Irrigated.

Pacific Northwest farmers claimed the top spots in winter wheat and irrigated spring wheat. In the winter wheat dryland category, producers near Carlton, OR, took the top spot, known as the Bin Buster, and the first place position with soft wheat varieties with yields of 173.77 bushels and 171.58 bushels per acre respectively. The winter wheat dryland placed out to fifth place and then the top five percentage over the country yield.

Washington and Idaho placed first and second in the winter wheat irrigated segment. The producer near Reardan, WA, pulled the Bin Buster with hard red winter wheat yielding nearly 212 bushels per acre. The Castleford, ID, farmer was just shy of 202 bushels with a soft white type. The third place producer from Michigan trailed back at 171 bushels per acre with a soft red wheat.

Idaho and Oregon were represented in the spring wheat irrigated category with the Bin Buster from Rexburg, ID, at 170.14 bushels per acre on a hard white spring wheat variety. The soft white spring wheat from Haines, OR, took second at 164.5 bushels per acre. The third place producer from North Dakota had a hard red spring variety at just over 109 bushels.

The only category that PNW farmers did not lead in was dryland spring wheat but, and Idaho producer from from Genesee landed in the third spot with hard red spring wheat at nearly 120 bushels per acre. The Bin Buster came in from North Dakota at 130 bushels per acre.

Other states represented in the National Wheat Yield Contest include Colorado, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Virginia. Find more on this announcement and other wheat news on NAWG's website.