What Do Crops Look Like Around the West?

I caught up with Limagrain Cereal Seeds COO Frank Curtis at a “No Barley, No Beer” Field day. He shared what he had seen on his recent travels around the West as to the wheat crop.
Curtis: “Well, I drove through Fort Collins, Colorado, through Wyoming, throughout Northern Oregon up through Washington as far as Spokane across to Moscow, over to Bozeman, Montana and back again. What I can tell you is there is a huge difference from region to region. The most striking thing is the incredibly early harvest in southern half of Washington where the temperatures got over 100 degrees three weeks earlier than normal. I think what we are going to see in that southern part of that region is yields that were comprised by very rapid ripening which is going mean lower bushel weights, lower yields, and higher proteins perhaps. And the except would be in the areas where there has been plenty of water. The combination of plenty of water and lots of sunshine in some cases has produced in some cases enormous yields.”
He continues with an update of Montana’s wheat crop.
Curtis: “I was pleasantly surprised to see in Western Montana the temperatures hadn’t gotten so high — they have been 20 degrees cooler. The spring wheat there is looking exceptional. So I think there is going to be a very nice, high quality spring wheat harvest in Western Montana.”