WICHITA, Kansas, May 6 (Reuters) – Crop scouts on the second day of an annual three-day tour of Kansas projected an average yield for hard red winter wheat in the southwest portion of the state at 34.5 bushels per acre, up from 30.8 bu. a year ago but below a five-year average.
The Wheat Quality Council tour’s five-year average for the area is 36.98 bushels per acre.
Scouts on the tour sampled 305 fields on Wednesday between Colby and Wichita, Kansas. Tour participants in northern and western Kansas were finding yields that were below 2014.
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The Oklahoma Grain and Feed Association projected the yield of Oklahoma’s 2015 winter wheat crop at 29.4 bushels per acre, an official with Plains Grains, a wheat industry group, said on Wednesday.
The estimate tops the state’s official 2014 yield of 17 bu. per acre, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Mark Hodges of Plains Grains said the Oklahoma Grain and Feed Association projected Oklahoma wheat production at 111.7 million bu, based on harvested acreage of 3.8 million acres.
Drought in 2014 pushed the crop down to 47.6 million bu., down from 105.4 million in 2013.
Hodges shared the figures with scouts on the Wheat Quality Council’s annual Kansas crop tour on Wednesday.
