MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Kansas farmers are expected to bring in a smaller winter wheat crop this year even though they will harvest about the same number of acres, the U.S. Agriculture Department said Tuesday.
This year’s Kansas winter wheat crop is forecast at 306 million bushels, down 10% from a year ago, according to the agency’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.
Average yield is forecast at 47 bushels per acre, down 5 bushels from last year.
The agency said Kansas growers will cut wheat off 6.5 million acres, which is about 96% of the acres that they planted with wheat last fall.
U.S. winter wheat production is expected to be down 4% from last year with the agency pegging the nation’s 2020 harvest at 1.25 billion bushels. The average yield nationwide is forecast at 51.7 bushels per acre, down 1.9 bushels from last year.
The forecasts are based on crop conditions as of May 1.