Spring Wheat Tour Final

All Spring Wheat Averages 45.5 BPA

A ripe spring wheat field near Gettysburg, South Dakota, waits for harvest this week. (Photo courtesy Tim Luken Onida, South Dakota)

OMAHA (DTN) -- The 2016 Hard Spring Wheat and Durum Tour ended with a weighted average spring wheat yield of 45.5 bushels per acre (bpa), down from 49.5 bpa last year. That brings the wheat tour's five-year average spring wheat yield to 45.96 bpa.

Over the course of three days, scouts measured 455 fields, of which 407 were hard red spring wheat, 42 were durum, and six were hard red winter. Individually, those hard red spring wheat fields averaged 45.7 bpa and the durum fields averaged 45.4 bpa.

Last year, scouts measured 446 fields and produced an average yield of 49.5 bushels per acre. Specifically, the 2015 spring wheat fields averaged 49.9 bpa, a tour record, and the durum fields averaged 39.2 bpa.

Overall, scouts found an average-sized crop in decent condition this year that didn't quite match the size of the last couple years' harvests, said Wheat Quality Council president and tour organizer Ben Handcock.

Today marked the end of an era for Handcock, who has led both the Kansas winter wheat and North Dakota spring wheat tours for 25 years.

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On the third, final and shortest day of the tour, scouts explored northeastern and central North Dakota, as well as some western Minnesota counties. They measured 76 fields, all hard red spring wheat, which averaged 48.9 bpa. They converged on Fargo at 1:30 p.m., where the tour's overall spring wheat yield was calculated.

Tour participants saw some lower yields heading from Devils Lake to Grand Forks, according to Terry Weckerly, past president of the North Dakota Grain Growers Association (NDGGA), who led one of the cars. "Our route is seeing lower yields as we head south of Grand Forks towards Northfield and Hatton," he told DTN.

The overabundance of rainfall in this region of the Northern Plains was evident today, Weckerly added. Scouts saw standing water in the ditches and in tracks in the field. "We've had about 5 inches of rain lately here, and while that might be good for corn and soybeans, we need to shut the faucet off or wheat could suffer," he said. "I think one of the issues affecting yields was that we had heat stress on the early crop and then all this rain. On my farm, I have seen some lost yield potential due to that stress. We basically went from too dry to too wet in this area."

Weckerly's team of scouts also spotted recent hail damage in some North Dakota wheat fields. "We saw a field that appeared to have some shattering damage from a small hail storm, but probably not more than 20%," he said. Shattering of wheat occurs when mature kernels are knocked out of the wheat head by hail or improperly adjusted combine pickups and headers.

The National Weather Service reported that on July 20, storms dropped hail estimated at 1 to 3 inches in diameter on parts of the northeastern counties of Cavalier, Grand Forks, Pembina and Walsh. The region has also suffered from above-average rainfall in May, June and July, some of which damaged homes and crops, according to news reports from the Grand Forks Herald.

Handcock's car blazed due east from Devils Lake to Grand Forks and then headed south back to Fargo. The wheat in this area was quite good, with yields averaging around 50 bushels, he told DTN.

Farmers had clearly treated the fields for disease, most likely scab, which was not very visible in the region he toured, Handcock said. "There were tire tracks across fields all over the place, so they did a good job of controlling it," he said. Most of the wheat was 10 days to three weeks away from harvest, he added.

For more details on this year and past Hard Spring Wheat and Durum tours, see the Wheat Quality Council website: http://www.wheatqualitycouncil.org/….

Mary Kennedy can be reached at mary.kennedy@dtn.com

Follow her on Twitter @MaryCKenn

Emily Unglesbee can be reached at Emily.unglesbee@dtn.com

Follow her on Twitter @Emily_Unglesbee

(AG)

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