Tennessee Has Record Wheat Harvest in 2011

Tennessee’s wheat production has more than doubled from last year because of the warm and dry weather.

The state’s climate this year has been good for harvesting wheat, unlike the wet conditions in some Midwestern states. Tennessee farmers are expected to produce a record 21 million bushels of wheat this year, averaging 70 bushels per acre. That’s well above the national average of 44.

Brandon Whitt in Murfreesboro fared even better at 90 bushels on each of his 400 acres. He says the successful crop was unexpected because of the year’s rainy start.

“Here, we had all the wet weather in early spring we thought would just be detrimental to the wheat, but for some reason we had one of the best wheat crops we’ve ever had.”

In addition to having larger yields of wheat, Tennessee farmers should be selling their crop at a higher price. This year’s projected prices are up almost two dollars per bushel from last year.