The 2018 HRW wheat harvest raced northward over the past seven days with harvest now underway as far north as southern Kansas. However, progress was significantly slowed Thursday by locally heavy rain events across large areas of northern and central Oklahoma and the southeastern ½ of Kansas. The state of Texas is now projected to be 39% harvested with cutting being reported in the high plains of far northwest Texas. Oklahoma now projected to be 51% harvested while Kansas has now reported cutting (<1%) in several areas of south central and southeast areas of that state.
Yield reports, while still wide ranging 11 bu/ac (0.74 tons/ha) to over 50 bu/ac (3.4 tons/ha) , the overall average remains estimated at under 25 bu/ac (1.7 tons/ha). The biggest unknown about production in the Southern Great Plains continues to be what the final number of harvested acres will be (unknown acres of abandonment).
Test weights continue to be reported above 60 lb/bu (78.9 kg/hl) with a few exceptions. This has been somewhat of a surprise considering the environmental conditions under which this crop developed under in the south central and southern parts of the HRW production region. Average protein continues to be reportedly averaging between 11% and 12% with extremes ranging from10.5% to over 17%.
Crop conditions remain good to very good across the majority of Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, South Dakota, Montana. Crop conditions in the Pacific Northwest remain very good with abundant moisture. Harvest is not projected to start in that area until around the 4th of July.
The first 60 samples have now been delivered to the FGIS designated lab for initial evaluation. Of those the average of the first 17 are reported below and originated in Oklahoma.
| Tst | Exp | MST | Pro% | DKG | TKW | FN | Grade | Test | Weight | FM | DMG | S&B | DEF |
| 17 | 500 | 11.5 | 13.0 | 0.75 | 1HRW | 60.1 | 79.1 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 2.0 | 2.4 | ||
| FINAL | 2017 | ||||||||||||
| 488 | Final | 10.6 | 11.4 | 0.6 | 31.8 | 367 | 1HRW | 60.8 | 80.0 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 1.1 |
Click link to download a PDF of the PGI HRW Harvest Summary June 8 2018