Virginia wheat forecast up 3 percent from May

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services announced today that Virginia’s winter wheat crop for 2013 is expected to total 17.3 million bushels, up 3 percent from the May forecast. Producers in the Commonwealth are expected to harvest 270,000 acres of wheat that will yield an average of 64 bushels per acre. As of June 2, the majority of the wheat crop is in fair to good condition.

This is the second forecast released by the Virginia Field Office of the National Agriculture Statistics Services of the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the 2013 growing season.

Nationwide winter wheat production is forecast at 1.51 billion bushels, up two percent from the May 1 forecast but down eight percent from 2012. The United States yield is forecast at 46.1 bushels per acre, up 0.7 bushel from last month but down 1.1 bushels from last year.