(East Lansing, MI) - Some winter wheat growers in Michigan are looking for more storage because of what could be record yields per bushel this year.
USDA is forecasting 89 bushels of winter wheat per acre in the state based on conditions as of July 1st. That would tie the state record set in 2016 for the amount of winter wheat harvested per acre, said Dennis Pennington, a Michigan State University wheat systems specialist at the Saginaw Valley Research and Extension Center.
Pennington said the USDA prediction seems right on the money based on his talks with people at elevators and producers.
“Even growers that normally store in their own bins, they got their bins full and, now, they’re looking for storage,” he said.
According to USDA, the amount of winter wheat forecast per bushel in Michigan is six percent higher than per acre yields in 2023. This year’s crop is also in much better condition with 75 percent of the crop, as of June 30th, rated as good to excellent compared to 25 percent this time last year.
Winter wheat yields and quality last year were hurt by a significant dry spell in June. In comparison, Pennington said the amount of rainfall this year has been adequate and consistent throughout much of the growing season.
“We’ve had a good distribution of rainfall by month through the spring and throughout the grain fill period over the early summer which has been ideal for winter wheat,” he said.
Ironically, winter wheat production in Michigan is expected to noticeably decline from last year because the 420,000 acres planted is about 22 percent less than the 10 year average.
Pennington said some farmers in many parts of the state were not able get their winter wheat planted or complete the planting before a period of heavy precipitation in the fall made the soil too wet for placing seed into the ground.
“If you didn’t get ahead of the rain in the fall it got late,” he said.
Pennington said the increase in the harvested amount per acre, though, could actually be enough to limit the state’s loss in winter wheat production to just five percent. The loss could be even less if yields per acre come in higher than predicted.
“Our total production will be down even though our production per acre is looking to be pretty good,” he said.
Michigan ranked 13th in winter wheat production with more than 46 million bushels harvested while Indiana was 19th with just over 30 million bushels produced, according to USDA.
