Wheat harvest looking big, really big

Yield from this year’s winter wheat crop is the third best on record, according to a report released by the United States Department of Agriculture’s statistics service Monday.

With one-third of the state’s crop in the bin, David Knopf, director of the service’s Washington state office, reported average yields of 71 bushels per acre. Two bushels over the July 1 forecast and just four bushels lower than last year’s record crop.

In total, the state is expected to glean 119 million bushels of winter wheat from 1.67 million planted acres.

Spring wheat yields are expected to hit an average of 56 bushels per acre, one bushel higher than the July forecast, six bushels smaller than the 2011 yield.

With 475,000 acres of spring wheat planted, the state’s total crop is expected to be 26.6 million bushels, down 30 percent from last year’s crop.

Making up for lower wheat plantings are barley and garbanzo beans.

Washington’s barley crop is expected to hit 10.8 million bushels, a 27 percent increase over last year. Barley growers are looking at yields of 72 bushels per acre, two below last year.

The garbanzo crop is predicted to increase 26 percent from last year’s crop to 1.84 million hundredweight. Garbanzo acreage rose to 64,500 acres, an increase of 16,500 over last year.

Knopf said garbanzo production is expected to yield an average of 1,600 pounds per acre, down 300 pounds from the 2011 crop.