Nebraska wheat crop down 17 percent from 2009 at 64.1M bushels; oat crop dropped 18 percent

Nebraska wheat, oat harvests down double digits

LINCOLN, Neb. — Nebraska farmers harvested 17 percent less wheat this year than in 2009, federal officials said Thursday.

In a news release, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said 64.1 million bushels was harvested.

The Nebraska area’s grain harvest was 1.49 million acres — down 110,000 acres from last year, the USDA said. The average 2010 yield was 43 bushels an acre, which is 5 bushels below last year.

Wheat stored from previous Nebraska crops totaled 95.8 million bushels as of Sept. 1, up 19 percent from a year ago.

The USDA said the 2010 oat crop hit 1.7 million bushels. That’s 18 percent below 2009 and the smallest since 1870.

Nebraska farmers had planted 90,000 acres of oats, the USDA said, but the area harvested for grain in 2010 was 25,000 acres, 5,000 below last year. The oat yield was 68 bushels an acres, down a bushel from 2009.

USDA spokesman Dean Groskurth said Thursday that the 65,000 acres that weren’t harvested for grain were mostly planted for cover with other grains and would be harvested as animal feed.

Online:

USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service: www.nass.usda.gov