Market News & Headlines >> Early Spring Wheat Tour Results not as Bad as Feared

Yield prospects for hard red spring wheat in southeastern North Dakota were below average following a hot, dry growing season, according to scouts on the first day of the Wheat Quality Council’s annual spring wheat crop tour. 

But the tour’s early yield calculations were not as bad as some had feared, tour participants told Reuters News Service. "So far, I would say this is better than what most folks expected," said Kevin Ernst, a broker with Chiodo Commodities. 

Scouts on one leg of the tour on Tuesday morning stopped at six fields in Cass, Richland, Ransom and Barnes and Lamoure counties, in southeastern North Dakota, and calculated an average yield of 45.5 bushels per acre, according to Reuters. That was up from the year-ago average on the same route of about 41 bushels, but below the route's five-year average of about 49 bushels. 

A second car made five stops in Richland and Sargent counties, in far southeastern North Dakota, and adjacent areas south of Moorhead, Minnesota, and calculated an average yield of 41.2 bushels per acre. The five-year tour average for the same route is about 45 bushels. A third car traveling in southeastern North Dakota scouted three fields in Cass, Ransom and Lamoure counties and calculated an average yield of 41.0 bushels, compared with a five-year average for the route of about 48 bushels. 

USDA’s July Crop Report pegged the average North Dakota “other” spring wheat yield at 38.0 bushels per acre, down from 46.0 bushels last year. USDA estimated the average U.S. yield at 40.3 bushels, down from 47.0 last year.