The 2020 HRW wheat harvest continues to move at a rapid pace through the northern and northwestern section of the US. South Dakota is now 78% complete with harvest and is now the southernmost state with any appreciable fields left to cut. South Dakota continues to report exceptionally good yields, high test weights and high protein, many wheat producers have been quoted as saying it’s “their best crop ever”. That statement is significant by itself, however, South Dakota also continues to report on average 11.8% protein, 61.0 lb/bu (80.2 kg/hl) and very low dockage.
Harvest continues to roll and pick up momentum in the remaining HRW states to the north and northwest parts of the US, Montana is 17% harvested with limited direct reports on quality or yield. However, the crop in Montana was last rated to be over 80% in good to excellent condition. Washington is 25% harvested vs. 16% last year, but below 31% (5-yr avg). Harvest quickly moved forward this week up as temps continued to increase. Washington is now reporting: 12.0% protein, 9.0% moisture, 61.8 lb/bu (81.3 kg/hl), grading #1. Oregon is 37% complete with harvest, but still behind the 5-year average for this date. However, all Pacific Northwest states continue to move rapidly with the harvest of this crop as favorable conditions continue to dominate.
350 samples have now been collected with 313 of those in various stages of testing. The 313 samples cover Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming and most of South Dakota, reported results are straight averages with no weighting for production applied. Overall test weights did not change this week from 61.3 lb/bu (80.6 kg/hl). TKW also did not change from last week’s 30.0 grams and still meets the Wheat Quality Council’s quality target. Protein increased again this week to 11.9%. Shrunken and broken increased slightly this week to 1.3% up from 1.2% last week. Mixograph testing of subsamples still indicate this crop has sound functional quality protein and with much more consistency across the sampling locations again this week.