COLORADO HIGHLIGHTS 

Winter wheat production in Colorado, estimated at 98.00 million bushels, is up 40 percent from 2018, according to the September 1 Agricultural Survey conducted by the Mountain Regional Field Office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service, USDA. Winter wheat producers seeded 2.15 million acres in the fall of 2018 for harvest in 2019, down from 2.25 million acres seeded for the previous year’s crop. Acreage harvested for grain increased 50,000 acres from last year to 2.00 million acres in 2019. Winter wheat yield, at a record 49.0 bushels per acre, is up 13.0 bushels per acre from last year, and 1.0 bushel above the previous record yield of 48.0 bushels per acre set in 2016. 

Colorado’s barley seeded area, at 54,000 acres, is down 6,000 acres from last year. Harvested area, at 52,000 acres, is down 1,000 acres from 2018. Barley yield, at 138.0 bushels per acre, is down 7.0 bushels per acre from last year. Barley production in 2019 is estimated at 7.18 million bushels, down 7 percent from the previous year. 

UNITED STATES HIGHLIGHTS 

All wheat production totaled 1.96 billion bushels in 2019, up 4 percent from the revised 2018 total of 1.89 billion bushels. Area harvested for grain totaled 38.1 million acres, down 4 percent from the previous year. The United States yield was estimated at 51.6 bushels per acre, up 4.0 bushels from the previous year. The levels of production and changes from 2018 by type were: winter wheat, 1.30 billion bushels, up 10 percent; other spring wheat, 600 million bushels, down 4 percent; and Durum wheat, 57.7 million bushels, down 26 percent. 

Winter wheat production for 2019 totaled 1.30 billion bushels, up 10 percent from the revised 2018 total of 1.18 billion bushels. The United States yield, at 53.6 bushels per acre, was up 5.7 bushels from 2018. Area harvested for grain was estimated at a record low 24.3 million acres, down 2 percent from the previous year. Record high yields were estimated in Colorado, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming for 2019. 

Barley production was estimated at 171 million bushels, up 12 percent from the revised 2018 total of 154 million bushels. The average yield per acre, at 77.4 bushels, was down 0.1 bushel from the previous year. Producers seeded 2.72 million acres in 2019, up 7 percent from last year. Harvested area, at 2.21 million acres, was up 12 percent from 2018. 

Special Note: When producers were surveyed, there was significant unharvested acreage of barley in Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, and Washington; significant unharvested acreage of oats in Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, and South Dakota; significant unharvested acreage of Durum wheat in Idaho, Montana, and North Dakota; and a large proportion of other spring wheat acreage not yet harvested in Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Washington. The unharvested area and expected production were included in the totals published in this report. NASS will re-contact respondents who previously reported acreage not yet harvested in these States. If the newly collected data justifies any changes, NASS will update the September 30 estimates in the November 8 Crop Production report. Stocks estimates are also subject to review since unharvested production is included in the estimate of on-farm stocks.