Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Smaller Wheat Crop Expected This Year

From Staff And Wire Reports

Dry planting conditions across Washington and Idaho last fall may result in a significant drop in the 1995 Washington winter wheat harvest, a federal agency said.

Releasing its first projections of the winter wheat crop, the Agricultural Statistics Service Thursday said that Washington farmers will harvest 113.4 million bushels of winter wheat, down 9 percent from last year’s harvest of 124.2 million bushels.

Farmers will harvest 2.1 million acres of winter wheat, 200,000 acres less than 1994.

Idaho farmers will harvest an estimated 53.1 million bushels, down 7 percent from 1994, from 770,000 acres.

Winter wheat is planted in the fall and harvested the following year. Dry conditions last fall delayed planting, or kept some farmers from seeding their crop at all, the statistics service said.

Combined winter wheat production in Washington, Idaho and Oregon is forecast at 216.9 million bushels, down 8 percent from 236.8 million bushels harvested last year.