RICHMOND, Va. – The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has announced that Virginia farmers should expect 11.7 million bushels of winter wheat during 2016, according to to the Virginia field office of USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.
This expectation would be down sixteen percent for 2016.
The forecast is based off June 1 crop conditions, and that hasn’t changed since May’s conditions. Farmers seeded 240,000 acres last fall with 185,000 acres to be harvested for grain. Acres for other uses totaled 55,000 acres and will be used as cover crop or will be cut as silage or hay.
Current conditions are seven percent excellent, 57 percent good, 28 percent fair, and seven percent poor, one percent very poor.
However, the nationwide forecast was at 1.51 bushels, up six percent from May 1, and up ten percent since 2015.
