05/14/07 Washington winter wheat crop slightly larger than 06

Washington Ag May 14, 2007 The first official estimate for the 2007 winter wheat crop in Washington is forecasting production of 119.5 million bushels. That's up just slightly from 2006 but down from the 120.6 million of two years ago. The forecast is from the Washington Bureau of the National Agricultural Statistics Service where statistician Linda Simpson says a recent survey indicates the state's farmers expect to harvest 1.81 million acres of the 1.85 million acres they planted last fall. Simpson: "This is would be 10-thousand more harvested acres from the same amount of planted acres than was harvested last summer. Yields will reportedly average 66 bushels per acre, unchanged from last year but one bushel per acre below two years ago." Soft white wheat is the predominant type of wheat grown in Washington and the Pacific Northwest and the Statistics Service expects total U.S. soft white wheat production this year, both winter and spring, to be up seven percent over 2006 totaling 240.6 million bushels. U.S. winter wheat production overall is forecast to rise 24 percent compared to last year's crop which was reduced by drought in the Plains. Even with the higher production the USDA is projecting wheat prices to average nearly 40 cents more a bushel in 2007. I'm Bob Hoff.