Washington County leads state in wheat production

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Washington and Randolph counties were Illinois’ top winter wheat producers in 2021.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently released its winter wheat county estimates and Washington County produced 4.753 million bushels of winter wheat with an average of 83.1 bushels per acre on 57,200 harvested acres.

Randolph County farmers harvested 2.96 million bushels of winter wheat from 34,700 acres that averaged 85.3 bushels per acre.

Clinton County tallied 2.87 million bushels of winter wheat, averaging 86.9 bushels per acre across 32,300 harvested acres.

The USDA reported Perry County produced 2.344 million bushels with an average yield of 77.6 bushels per acre on 30,200 harvested acres.

Rounding out the top five producers is Monroe County with 1.761 million bushels of winter wheat produced and averaging 74.6 bushels per acre across 23,600 harvested acres.

Top Averages

Gallatin County had the Prairie State’s top average winter wheat yield of 95.9 bushels per acre (4,360 harvested acres), followed by Ogle, 92.9 (4,200 acres); Vermilion, 91.2 (4,660 acres); Kankakee, 89.6 (5,310 acres); and Effingham, 89.4 (7,450 acres).

Record

The USDA previously reported in its small grain summary that Illinois’ winter wheat is projected to average a record 79 bushels per acre, 11 bushels above 2020 and three above the previous record set in 2017.

There were 670,000 planted acres and 610,000 harvested acres with total production of 48.19 million bushels.