08/14/06 Report trims some PNW wheat yields

Farm and Ranch August 14, 2006 In a report issued Friday the USDA raised its forecast for the national average price for wheat to $4.20 a bushel, a 20-cent increase from a month ago. But some northwest farmers may have less wheat to sell than they thought. Compared to July, USDA's crop report left Oregon's winter wheat yields unchanged at 55 bushels an acre but cut Idaho's from 84 to 82 bushels and Washington's from 67 to 66. Those are all lower than last year. A lot of the region's winter wheat has been harvested and Dave Paul with USDA's Risk Management Agency has been out talking to some producers about their yields. Paul: "I talked to several wheat growers from the Pendleton area and there was some disappointment. Things looked a lot better going in with their combines than it did coming out. You know I think that heat took a toll on some of the wheat." The August crop report had spring wheat yields in Oregon up from a month ago at 55 bushels. Idaho's at 68 and Washington's at 50 were unchanged. Total U.S. wheat production, winter and spring, is pegged at 1.8 billion bushels, down 14 percent from 2005. The U.S. corn crop is forecast at 11 billion bushels, down one percent from last year. The nation's barley crop is forecast at 183 million bushels, down 14 percent from 2005 and the lowest since 1936. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.