Tuesday, June 12, 2012

The government is sticking with its earlier forecast on the projected size of the Kansas winter wheat harvest.

The Kansas Agricultural Service on Tuesday projected Kansas farmers would harvest 387 million bushels. That estimate is unchanged from last month's report.

If the agency is right, that would make it the highest wheat production since 2003 in Kansas. This year's crop is expected to be 40 percent bigger than the drought-devastated 2011 harvest.

The service predicted yields will average about 43 bushels per acre, also unchanged from a month ago.

Nationwide, winter wheat production is forecast at 1.68 billion bushels. That is down 1 percent from last month's projections.

All the newest estimates are based on crop conditions as of June 1.