Virginia farmers expect to harvest 11.7 million bushels of winter wheat during 2020 according to the Virginia Field Office of USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. The expected crop for 2020 would be up 80% from the previous year. Farmers seeded 260,000 acres last fall with 180,000 acres to be harvested for grain. Based on crop conditions as of May 1 and assuming a normal growing season, farmers expect a yield of 65.0 bushels per acre, up 3.0 bushels from 2019. Acres for other uses totaled 80,000 acres and will be used as cover crop or cut as silage or hay.

As of May 10, winter wheat overall was in mostly good condition with farmers currently planting crops and cutting hay. Eighty-six percent of the crop was headed compared to 69% at this time last year and 68% for the five-year average.

Winter wheat production for the Nation was forecast at 1.25 billion bushels, down 4% from 2019. The expected area to be harvested for grain or seed totals 24.3 million acres, down slightly from last year. As of May 1, the U.S. yield was forecast at 51.7 bushels per acre, down 1.9 bushels from last year.

As of May 1, Virginia on-farm hay stocks totaled 310,000 tons, up 40,000 tons from May 1, 2019 stocks. Farmers have used 83% of their hay stocks since December 1, 2019.

As of May 10, both alfalfa and all other hay were in mostly good condition.

U. S. hay stocks were at 20.4 million tons, up 5,520,000 tons from 2019.