National Winter Wheat Harvest Heading Into The Home Stretch

This has been a difficult year for winter wheat growers, nationally, and as USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey pointed out the crop is starting to come to a close.

“The harvest passed the halfway mark early in the week to reach 59% complete by July 5th, staying well ahead of the five-year average of 51% and last year's 51%,” Rippey said.

He pointed out every winter wheat producing state except Montana has begun harvest.

“Getting our first 1% harvested over the last week in Idaho and Washington, which is pretty typical for the timing there," Rippey said. "Meanwhile, we're just about wrapping up in some of the southern states. 98% complete in Oklahoma, 94% harvested in Arkansas, pretty much on par with schedule.”

Oregon reported 5% harvested as of July 5th.

National Quality Continues To Struggle

When it comes to the quality of this year’s crop, nationally, 26% is considered good-to-excellent, while 47% is very poor-to-poor. That was unchanged from last week, and well off from the numbers reported this time last year.

When it comes to Northwest quality, 37% of Oregon’s crop is rated good-to-excellent, 61% of Washington’s crop is in that category, while Idaho leads the region with 81% of its winter wheat considered good-to-excellent.

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