Spring Wheat Crop Less Than Meets the Eye, Annual Tour Shows

by Jeff Beach

An annual industry tour of the wheat crop in North Dakota and northwest Minnesota projects lower yields than a year ago but an overall good-quality crop. 

The Wheat Quality Council tour projects an average yield of 49 bpa, down from 54.5 bushels in 2024. The durum wheat forecast also was down at 37 bpa, compared with 45.3 in 2024. 

Dave Green, one of the tour organizers for the Wheat Quality Council, said the yield projections did not quite live up to his expectations.

“I thought it looked a little better than that,” he said during a debriefing at North Dakota State University for participants in the three-day tour. 

He said fields in the northern tier of counties along the Canadian border showed some signs of lack of moisture but otherwise, the crop looks good. 

Nick Sinner, who was appointed executive director of the North Dakota Grain Growers Association in the spring, attended the tour wrap-up.

“It’s not a bin-buster, but a good, solid crop,” Sinner said. He was not a part of the tour but said he had driven across much of the state this week and was impressed by the crop’s evenness. He said he was surprised to hear the slightly lower yield expectations. 

Sinner said he went through areas of Barnes and Cass counties hit hard by recent storms. He said the wheat seems to have held up well but some soybean fields were devastated. 

The tour attracts people from across the milling and baking industries who learn how to calculate yields before crisscrossing North Dakota and the western edge of Minnesota, inspecting fields as they go. 

Tour participants from across the U.S. also learn about crop production and life in North Dakota, and get a chance to visit the North Dakota State Mill and Elevator in Grand Forks, the largest flour mill in the country. 

North Dakota is the nation’s largest producer of spring wheat. 

Green said the tour often offers participants an opportunity to see examples of diseases and pests that can damage the wheat crop but there was little to find this year. 

He said wheat harvest is a couple of weeks away in the Red River Valley, with the rest of North Dakota still three to five weeks away.

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