More wheat, less oats in state's crop outlook

MADISON

Despite earlier concerns about yield losses due to the mid-May freeze and disease outbreaks, the July forecast for winter wheat production in Wisconsin has been upped by 1 percent from the June prediction in the latest crop outlook report by the National Agricultural Statistics Service and its Wisconsin field office.

That report pegs the state's upcoming winter wheat production at 20.67 million bushels — an increase of 33 percent from 2015. This would come from a potential of 265,000 harvested acres — up by 55,000 from last year — and an average yield of 78 bushels per acre, which would be 4 bushels more than in 2015 and 2 bushels more than was projected in early June. The 78 bushels would also tie the record per acre yield set in 2006.

The national outlook for winter wheat is the predicted harvest of nearly 1.628 billion bushels compared to 1.370 billion bushels in 2015. The prediction on the number of harvested acres is down by 2.81 million acres but the average yield per acre is expected to jump to 53.9 bushels compared to 42.5 bushels in 2015.

Oats production plunges

On the other extreme in Wisconsin is the prediction of a 39-percent setback for oats production compared to 2015. The predicted crop of 8.58 million bushels is based on the expected harvest of 130,000 acres — down from 195,000 acres in 2015.

Contributing to the reduction in the 2016 crop is the predicted per acre average yield of 66 bushels. This would be 6 bushels less than in 2015.

Across the United States, the report calls for a production of 76.609 million bushels of oats compared to the 89.535 million bushels in 2015. The number of harvested acres is expected to be down by 111,000 to 1.165 million and the average yield is predicted to be 65.8 bushels per acre compared to 70.2 bushels in 2015.

The latest report also detailed the breakout of potato types on the harvest of about 63,000 acres in Wisconsin this year. The variety list consists of 56 percent Russets, 34 percent whites, 8 percent reds and 2 percent yellows.