(AgriNews) – A record winter wheat yield of 50.5 bushels per acre is projected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The estimate is 2.7 bushels per acre higher than last month’s forecast and eight bushels above last year’s crop.
Overall, USDA forecasts U.S. winter wheat production of 1.51 billion bushels, a 6 percent increase from the May estimate and 10 percent better than the 2015 crop.
Hard red winter production, at 938 million bushels, is up 9 percent from last month’s estimate. Soft red winter production is estimated to reach 355 million bushels, down less than 1 percent from the May forecast.
The USDA projected white winter wheat production at 214 million bushels, up 3 percent from last month. Of the white winter production, 19 million bushels are hard white and 195 million bushels are soft white.
Winter wheat production estimates were unchanged from last month’s projections in Illinois and Indiana.
Indiana’s projected 73 bushels per acre would tie the record set in 2013 and produce 23.36 million bushels over 320,000 harvested acres. Acreage reached 260,000 acres in 2015, producing 17.68 million bushels on yields of 68 bushels per acre.
Illinois average winter wheat yields remain at 68 bushels per acre, five above last year. Planted acres remained unchanged from last year at 520,000. If realized, total production will reach 35.36 million bushels in the Prairie State.
As of May 29, USDA said 63 percent of the winter wheat crop in the 18 major producing states was rated in good to excellent condition, 19 percentage points better than at the same time last year. Nationally, 84 percent of the winter wheat crop was headed by May 29, eight percentage points ahead of the five-year average pace.
