Below average winter wheat crop expected

Recent snowfall has done little to revive Colorado’s troubled winter wheat crop, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture rating more than half of the state’s crop as “poor” or “very poor” in a report issued Monday.

The U.S.D.A. rated 27 percent of state’s winter wheat crop in very poor condition and 29 percent of the crop in poor condition as of Sunday, according to the report. Last year, just 12 percent of Colorado winter wheat was in poor or very poor condition.

Moisture from April snow storms buoyed Northern Colorado winter wheat, but farmers will suffer heavy losses south of Interstate 70, said Darrell Hanavan, executive director of the Colorado Association of Wheat Growers. Colorado farmers planted an estimated 2.2 million acres of winter wheat.

Hanavan believes farmers in both regions will have to abandon their crop. Colorado farmers abandoned nearly 30 percent of their winter wheat acreage in 2002, and Hanavan expects similar abandonment this year.

“I think we’re going to have a near total crop loss south of I-70,” he said. “It’s a situation I haven’t seen in 30 years.”

In Northern Colorado, winter wheat has lagged three weeks behind normal schedule, so much of the crop withstood freezing temperatures while benefiting from increased precipitation.

“If the crop had been at a normal growth stage, we would have seen probably some pretty severe crop injury,” he said.

However, Hanavan said winter wheat harvested later than normal in July could suffer from the heat. Winter wheat farmers typically plant the crop in September and October and harvest it the following July.

Hanavan expects these factors to lead to a below average winter wheat harvest. Colorado has averaged 33.4 bushels per acre and 72 million acres of winter wheat annually the past 10 years.

Colorado enjoyed a record harvest of 45 bushels per acre for a total of 105.8 million bushels in 2010.

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