It was a mixed bag of weather and crop production in Wisconsin last year.
A wet spring gave way to drought conditions in some parts of the state in late summer. Cooler than normal temperatures throughout the year posed another challenge for the state’s farmers.
“The lack of heat and moisture kept crop development indications consistently behind normal,” according to an annual report from the Wisconsin field office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service. “Above-average temperatures and rains in September and early October helped alleviate moisture shortages and push crops toward maturity.”
The average yield on corn for grain was 146 bushels per acre, up from 121 bushels per acre in 2012, according to the report. Corn for silage came in at 16.5 tons per acre, a nearly 8 percent increase from the 2012 yield of 14.5 tons per acre.
National corn for grain yield averages came in at 158.8 bushels per acre.
Fewer soybean areas were planted in Wisconsin last year and the average yield dipped 9 percent from 41.5 bushels per acre in 2012 to 38 bushels per acre last year.
Nationally, soybean yield is estimated at 43.3 bushels per acre.
• Winter wheat production in Wisconsin dipped 16 percent to 15.4 million bushels in 2013.
• Oat production, at 6.83 million bushels, was down 13 percent from 2012.
• Barley production increased 19 percent to 784,000 bushels.
• Wisconsin farmers harvested 1.10 million acres of alfalfa and alfalfa dry hay last year, a roughly 5 percent increase from 2012.
• Wisconsin saw saw a dip in potato yields last year but still managed to produce 27.3 million hundredweight, ranking the state third in fall potato production behind Idaho and Washington.
Source - http://www.postcrescent.com/
