USDA to re-survey spring wheat producers in some states
Farm and Ranch October 6, 2009 The numbers contained in last week’s USDA Small Grain Summary for the 2009 wheat crop were from farmer interviews conducted in the first two weeks of September. And at that time; Honig: “What we found was that there was a fairly significant portion of the crop that was not yet harvested.” That is Lance Honig, chief of the crops branch of USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. He says at the time of the mid-September survey 33 percent of the spring wheat and 44 percent of the durum had not yet been harvested. That could lead to an inaccurate production forecast. Honig: “So what we are going to do we are going to go back and re-interview some of those operators who had reported acreage yet to be harvested and just get a little bit more information about whether or not they were able to harvest all of those acres and if so, what were the actual yields they received on those acres as well.” Among the states to be resurveyed is Idaho. If any changes are made they will be reported in the November 10th Crop Production Report. The spring wheat harvest is done in the Pacific Northwest but USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey says not all the U.S. crop is in yet. Rippey: “Ninety-seven percent harvested with North Dakota the one state with 5% remaining. The five year average in North Dakota is 98%.” Minnesota and Montana still had a percent or two of their spring wheat to harvest at the start of this week as well. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
