Harvest progress and crop quality
Farm and Ranch August 20, 2009 Weekly harvest sample testing at the Wheat Marketing Center in Portland continues to show lower soft white wheat protein this year compared to the 2008 crop. The past two week’s samples have been running at 10.1 percent. Last year’s crop had an average protein content of 11.2 percent protein and the shortage of low protein soft white resulted in market price premiums for it. Test weights the past two weeks have been 60 pounds with samples grading number one. Samples tested so far this harvest have all come from Oregon and Washington. Recent rains slowed the grain harvest around the Pacific Northwest and raised some concern about sprout damage, but the outlook appears pretty dry the remainder of this week in the region, and according to USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey, it should be next week too. Rippey: “Hot weather from the Pacific Coast to the northern high plains. In terms of rainfall we expect wet conditions to continue across the east but it will be drier than normal for much of the western two-thirds of the country, particularly from the Northwest to the upper Midwest.” At the start of this week the winter wheat harvest in Oregon was 94 percent complete, 71 percent done in Washington and 59 percent cut in Idaho. The spring wheat harvest was over three-quarters complete in Oregon, approaching the half-way mark in Washington and just 17 percent cut in Idaho. Some seeding of the 2010 winter wheat crop is reported in Washington’s Adams County with more planting expected soon. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
