Spring wheat yield prospects in north-west and central North Dakota are not quite as strong as a year ago but are still the second-highest since at least 1994, scouts on an annual crop tour said on Wednesday. The Wheat Quality Council tour calculated an average yield for 160 hard red spring wheat fields scouted in the region at 47.3 bushels per acre (bpa) on the second day of a three-day crop tour.
That figure is the second-highest Day Two yield in tour records dating to 1994, surpassed only by the 2014 tour's second-day yield forecast of 48.4 bpa. Scouts on the tour sampled 173 fields overall on Wednesday, including 10 durum wheat fields and three hard red winter wheat fields. The average durum yield was 40.2 bpa, compared with 36.6 in 2014 and the prior five-year tour average of 38.0.
"Planting was significantly ahead (of normal), followed by timely moisture. Spring wheat had everything going for it on the front end," said Reid Christopherson, executive director of the South Dakota Wheat Commission and a scout on the tour. "The wheat is there, if we can keep it healthy and stay out of the hail," Christopherson added. Severe weather in the Dakotas in recent weeks, including hot spells, storms and high winds, has knocked down plants in some fields, making harvest a challenge and threatening grain quality.
On the first day of the tour on Tuesday, crop scouts found the strongest spring wheat yield prospects in 21 years after surveying crops in southern North Dakota and neighbouring sections of South Dakota and Minnesota. About 66 crop scouts drawn from the milling, baking and grain-handling sectors are on the Wheat Quality Council's three-day tour, which is scheduled to release a final spring wheat yield forecast on Thursday. The US Department of Agriculture has forecast a record-high North Dakota spring wheat yield of 48 bushels per acre for 2015, topping the 2014 record of 47.5.
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