Soft white wheat protein still running below last year
Farm and Ranch August 26, 2009 Weekly harvest sample testing by the Wheat Marketing Center in Portland shows soft white wheat protein has crept up two-tenths of a percent but is still running below the 2008 crop’s 11.2 percent. Cumulative samples from this harvest, which now include some from Idaho as well as Oregon and Washington, puts 2009 soft white wheat protein at 10.3 percent. Test weights are still 60 pounds. Moisture content moved up three-tenths to nine percent, while falling numbers was unchanged at 320 seconds. As for harvest itself, USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey says there is not a lot of winter wheat left to cut around the U.S. Rippey: “Ninety-seven percent harvested. That is one point behind the five year average pace. The only four states with any wheat left in the field, Idaho, Montana, just a little bit in South Dakota. Just three percent left to harvest, and in Washington state.” Washington growers had just 12 percent of their winter wheat left to harvest at the start of this week. Idaho farmers still had 22 percent to cut. Turning to the spring wheat harvest USDA’s Rippey says we are at only one-third of the average harvest pace. Rippey: “Twenty-two percent harvested by August 23rd. We should be at 66%. Harvest pace ranges from only 7% in North Dakota. Five year average pace there is 62% for this date. Washington state leading the way 62% harvested.” Idaho normally would have over half its spring wheat in the bin by now but only just over a third of the crop has been harvested. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
