Winter Wheat Harvest Off 3% From Forecast

This year’s estimated winter wheat harvest will be down 3% from last month’s forecast because of drought and disease, Agriculture Department economists say.

“Inadequate moisture and disease plagued winter wheat in the central and northern Great Plains during May,” the department’s Agricultural Statistics Board said in its report released Thursday.

It estimated winter wheat production at 1.57 billion bushels, slightly more than last year but still 3% below May’s forecast of 1.62 billion bushels. Last year’s output was 1.56 billion bushels.

Satellite photos reportedly show disease is taking a toll on soft red winter wheat in Kansas and some USDA officials think that drought could worsen the situation. But they say a healthy rainfall could ease the problem considerably over much of the country.

The report put this year’s average yield at 39.4 bushels an acre, down 0.4 bushels from the 1987 level and 1.3 bushels an acre below the May estimate.