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Michigan wheat looks good, but acreage a mystery

Michigan’s winter wheat growers are optimistic they’ll have a good crop this year.

Jody Pollok-Newsome is the Executive Director for the Michigan Wheat Program. She says, “That’s pretty much what I’m hearing from growers. It’s looking pretty decent.”

Pollok-Newsome tells Brownfield growers are spraying when the weather allows. “Things here are looking pretty good. I know our research plots are looking really good and in fact, they’re our right now trying to get some herbicide treatments in, in between the raindrops.”

Pollok-Newsome says there has been some concern about recent cool weather and field conditions, but she says the real question is what the prices will be and how much wheat is really out there. “The USDA report came out last fall saying we had about 500-thousand acres, and when you talked with ag business, elevators, millers, they really didn’t think that there was that much wheat out there, so I think the big question is going to be how much really got in and got planted.”

Pollok-Newsome says Michigan growers average 89 bushels per acre, but it’s still unclear how many acres are growing in her state.