The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services announced Monday that Virginia farmers expect to harvest 11.7 million bushels of winter wheat during 2016.
This is according to the Virginia field office of USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. The expected crop for 2016 would be down 16 percent from the previous year. The forecast was based on crop conditions as of June 1 and is unchanged from the May forecast. Growers expect a yield of 63.0 bushels per acre, down three bushels from 2015 but unchanged from May.
Farmers seeded 240,000 acres last fall with 185,000 acres to be harvested for grain. Acres for other uses totaled 55,000 acres and will be used as cover crop or cut as silage or hay.
Current conditions are seven percent excellent, 57 percent good, 28 percent fair, seven percent poor and one percent very poor.
Winter wheat production for the nation was forecast at 1.51 billion bushels, up six percent from the May 1 forecast and up 10 percent from 2015. Based on June 1 conditions, the United States yield is forecast at 50.5 bushels per acre, up 2.7 bushels from last month and up eight bushels from last year. If realized, this will be the highest yield on record for the United States.
The expected area to be harvested for grain or seed totals 29.8 million acres, down 8 percent from last year.
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