US Spring Wheat Harvest Likely Lowest In 10 Years; ND Abandonment As High As 50% In Some Areas

[hatrack]

FARGO, N.D. (Reuters) - Hot and dry weather during the growing season slashed yield prospects for U.S. hard red spring wheat to the lowest in nearly a decade, scouts on an annual crop tour said on Thursday.

The Wheat Quality Council tour pegged the 2017 U.S. hard red spring wheat yield at 38.1 bushels per acre (bpa) following the three-day tour of North Dakota, the top spring wheat state, and adjacent areas in Minnesota and South Dakota,

That was down from the tour's 2016 forecast of 45.7 bpa, the prior five-year average of 46.8 bpa, and was the lowest since 2008. The U.S. Department of Agriculture on July 12 estimated yields of spring wheat, not including durum, at 40.3 bpa. Millers and bakers were bracing for higher costs and tighter supplies of the spring wheat variety, prized for its high protein content needed to bake bread and pizza crust.

EDIT

Some wheat acres in western North Dakota have already been baled for hay, scouts found. But it was still too early to predict what percentage of planted acres would be harvested, and the tour's routes do not cover some areas most impacted by drought in far western North Dakota and Montana. "We are in uncharted territory," said Dave Green, executive vice president of the Wheat Quality Commission. In southwestern North Dakota, abandonment has been "guessed at 40 to 50 percent," Green said.

EDIT

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-wheat-tour-idUSKBN1AC2XX

[bottomofthehill]

1. Clearly, Obama's fault

Just ask President Trump, he will tell you. That garden the Mrs planted at the White House took all the sun from the fields in ND.