Top Winter Wheat, Oat Producing Counties Determined for 2014

New estimates by the USDA give us an indication of what counties produced the most winter wheat and oat crops during the past growing season. The agency says Dane County was the largest winter wheat producing county in Wisconsin in 2014 with about 1.11 million bushels. The area has been in the top three counties in the state for production since estimates began in 1966. Dodge and Manitowoc were second and third this year; with east central Wisconsin being the largest wheat producing district.

The highest yielding county was also Dane with a yield of 79.1 bushels per acre. Wood and Iowa Counties had the next two highest yields. The lowest yielding counties were Monroe and St. Croix, which both produced 41 bushels per acre.

Grant and Monroe Counties had the greatest decreases in yield from the previous year, which were down 5.9 and 5.4 bushels per acre, respectively.

In 2014, Langlade County was the largest oat-producing county with 834,000 bushels. Grant was second with 420,000 bushels produced.

The department says widely variable conditions across the state resulted in some counties reporting higher yields than 2013, while others reported lower yields than last year. Portage had the largest decrease of 28.7 bushels and was the lowest yielding county at 41.2 bushels per acre. Trempealeau had the second lowest yield at 42.3.

Source: Wisconsin Ag Connection