Texas wheat farmers are nearly through with the 2012 wheat crop, and as harvest wraps up, yields look slightly better than last year.
Eugene Kasberg, owner of Kasberg Gin and Grain Co. near San Angelo, said there is a wide yield-range in west-central Texas.
“Some of the fields produced yields of about what farmers expected, maybe slightly more,” he said in a San Angelo Standard report. “The fields were perhaps prettier than they turned out, grain-wise. Yields have ranged from lows of 8 to 10 bushels per acre on up to 40 bushels per acre.”
Bushel weights are lighter than the normal 60 pounds. This year’s weights are about 50 pounds per bushel, with a limited amount of 61 and 62 pounds.
Dryland acres were mostly grazed or baled for hay this year, according to area reports. Texas wheat growers expect to harvest 103.9 million bushels, up from 49.4 million in 2011 but down 19 percent from 2010, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service.
Statewide yield is expected to average 31 bushels per acre, up 5 bushels from last year, but down 3 bushels from 2010. Harvested acreage for grain, at 3.35 million acres, is up 76 percent from 2011.