Washington farmers plan to boost spring wheat acres

Washington Ag Today April 4, 2011 Good prices and moisture have Washington growers planning to increase their spring wheat plantings this year over 2010. Linda Simpson of the Washington Field Office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service says that information was gathered in a recent survey of producers.

Simpson: “Spring wheat acreage is estimated at 12% above last year and the highest level in two decades.”

Simpson says planting of the 650-thousand acres farmers plan to sow this spring is running behind.

Simpson: “Spring wheat planting stands at 15% compared with almost half the crop in the ground last year.”

When you combine the spring wheat with the 1.8 million winter wheat acres planted for harvest this year, Washington’s all wheat acreage for 2011 is up five percent from 2010.

Simpson says Washington farmers plan on increasing barley plantings five thousand acres, which is the first increase in four years.

Simpson: “Growers are expected to plant 95-thousand acres. For other Washington crops, hay acres for harvest are down seven percent from last year, lentils are down ten percent and dry edible peas are down four percent.”

Field corn acres in the state have reached 205-thousand acres, up three percent from the 2010 crop and the highest level since 1982.

All these are what producers said they intended to plant and that can change. A report in June will provide an estimate of actual planted acres. There isn’t a report on potato acreage until July.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on Northwest Aginfo Net.