PENDLETON — Oregon’s wheat harvest was above average this year, succeeding 2023’s below-average yield.

Amanda Hoey, CEO of the Oregon Wheat Growers League and Oregon Wheat Association, attributed the bountiful 2024 crop to timely rain.

There are about 2,000 wheat growers in Oregon raising crops on about 725,000 acres. A majority of those acres are not irrigated, so precipitation plays a vital role in the yield. That includes the Columbia Basin, which is the state’s major wheat-growing region.

April and May rains are especially vital. The most common wheat crop in Oregon is winter wheat, known as soft white, which is planted during the fall. This year, decent moisture during the winter and spring helped the winter wheat crop get a good start.

{p dir=”ltr”}{span}Jason Flowers, program director of Oregon Wheat Growers League, said Umatilla County harvested 18,777,500 bushels, which accounted for 37% of Oregon’s production. Morrow and Gilliam counties combined brought in 10,657,500 bushels, making up 21% of the state’s production. {/span}

Flowers said the harvest has definitely gone up from last year with some farmers close to record yields. Although some farmers experienced high numbers this year, not everyone did, Flowers said, because rain is not evenly distributed.

The harvest marketing year starts June 1, and four months into the year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service reported an uptick in sales.

According to a press release from the USDA NASS, Oregon yielded 50.8 million bushels of wheat, about a 26% bump over last year with yield estimated at 70 bushels per acre, reflecting an above-average harvest for the crop statewide.

Hoey said white wheat is a proxy for the condition of export sales for Oregon. Pacific Northwest wheat is about 95% of the white wheat U.S. sales and Oregon is about 90% production in soft white.

“Oregon exports about 90% of the wheat that’s grown in the state mostly to North and South and Southeast Asia, but we also have markets elsewhere, but that is the dominant focused market,” Hoey said. “So we had not just a good quantity of wheat, but we had really good quality this year as well.”

According to the U.S. Wheat Associates commercial sales by class chart, last year’s white wheat harvest had 2 million metric tons, which is roughly 73 million bushels. This year’s 3 million metric tons to date, June to early October for the marketing year, is roughly 110 million bushels.

“Basically, stronger exports, stronger sales,” Hoey said. “Still low prices for the producer, but we’re starting to see those take an uptick. Would like to see them go higher, but we are seeing better demand for wheat, which is really important as we move through this marketing year.”

Hoey said escalating input costs, such as fuel and fertilizer, continue to remain a challenge and while they are seeing a better trend, the price for wheat to the producer (farmer) continues to be problematic.

“So we had not just a good quantity of wheat, but we had really good quality this year as well.”

— Amanda Hoey, CEO, Oregon Wheat Growers League