CHICAGO (Reuters) — The harvest of hard red winter wheat in the U.S. Plains is off to a slow start following a series of rain delays this week, and so far yields are low and protein content is high, a weekly harvest report showed.
The showers followed months of severe drought that stressed the crop, especially in southwestern areas of the Plains.
The wheat harvest is roughly one-third complete in Texas and Oklahoma, and producers began test-cutting fields this week in parts of Kansas, the top U.S. producer, according to the report from Plains Grains Inc., a nonprofit trade group.
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Wheat in the more drought-stricken areas of Texas and Oklahoma is only 15 to 20 cm high, causing problems for combines that may prompt farmers to abandon those fields, the report said.
Most yields have ranged from five to 30 bushels per acre, with the majority averaging in the high teens, Plains Grains said. For comparison, the U.S. Department of Agriculture put the average 2013 wheat yield at 31 bu. per acre in Oklahoma and 29 bu. per acre in Texas.
USDA forecast the 2014 yield at 18 bu. per acre in Oklahoma and 25 bu. per acre in Texas.
The average test weight among 40 samples tested so far was 59.6 lbs per bushel, behind the 2013 average of 59.9. The average protein level was 14.3 percent, well above the 2013 average of 13.4 percent. Plains Grains expects to test 530 samples by the end of the hard red winter wheat harvest in September.
Hard red winter wheat, the largest U.S. wheat class, is grown across the Plains and typically milled into flour for bread. USDA this week forecast 2014 U.S. production at 720 million bushels, the smallest in eight years.
