Winter Wheat Quality Continues To Struggle

As winter wheat harvest continues across the nation, there has been very little change in the quality ratings of this year’s crop.

“We saw a one-point dip in the good to excellent rating week over week, now just 26% on June 21st," said USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey. "46% of the crop rated very-poor to poor. That is an uptick of one percentage point from the previous week. You want to compare that to last year, which was obviously a much better season, 49% good to excellent on this date in 2025 and just 19% very poor to poor.”

Rippey added several states are reporting some of their worst quality numbers in a generation, if not longer, including Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

As has been the case throughout much of this year, most of the Northwest is reporting higher quality numbers than the national average. Idaho’s winter wheat crop is rated 79% good to excellent, 65% of Washington’s crop is in the same category, while 33% of Oregon’s winter wheat is considered good to excellent.

According to USDA's numbers, winter wheat harvest has yet to start across the Northwest.

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