2021 Wheat

The US Department of Agriculture just released its Small Grains 2021 Summary, in which is the report for final production numbers for the 2021 harvest. USDA reported Idaho's total wheat production at 76.5 million bushels, down 32% from the record 112.5 million bushels set in 2020 and 25% below the five-year average.

The decline was a result of drastically lower average yields of 67.6 bu/acre, down 30% from 2020 and the lowest since 1989. Total harvested acres were just 3% below 2020 at 1.13 million acres, equal to the five-year average. 

The USDA reported Idaho winter wheat production at 45.4 million bushels, which is the lowest in the 41 years of USDA production data available.

Idaho spring wheat production was 30.6 million bushels, the lowest since 2015. Idaho durum production totaled 539,000 bushels. Production for all classes of wheat fell by just over 30%.

According to the report, total U.S. wheat production settled in at 1.65 billion bushels in 2021, down 10 percent from the 2020 total of 1.83 billion bushels.

Area harvested for grain totaled 37.2 million acres, up 1 percent from the previous year. The United States yield was estimated at 44.3 bushels per acre, down 5.4 bushels from the previous year.

The levels of production and changes from 2020 by type were: winter wheat, 1.28 billion bushels, up 9 percent; other spring wheat, 331 million bushels, down 44 percent; and Durum wheat, 37.3 million bushels, down 46 percent.