DENVER—Colorado harvested 98 million bushels of winter wheat this year, enough to rank second in the nation behind Kansas, according to data released Wednesday from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Darrell Hanavan of the Colorado Wheat Administrative Committee said that’s the highest Colorado has ever ranked.
Earlier forecasts pegged the harvest around 89 million bushels. The record is about 134 million bushels, set in 1985.
This year’s harvest was 72 percent larger than last year thanks to moisture last fall and above-average spring rain. However, average prices are expected to be down at least $1.50 per bushel from about $6.50 per bushel a year ago now that world and U.S. wheat production has gone up, and bumper harvests of several crops could force elevators to leave some wheat on the ground, Hanavan said.
In overall wheat production, USDA figures show Colorado ranked sixth with 100.6 million bushels.
“Both of those rankings are pretty phenomenal,” Hanavan said.
He said the winter wheat harvest is Colorado’s largest since 1999, when there was a record yield of 43 bushels per acre. The winter wheat yield this year was 40 bushels per acre, the second-highest on record.
