With fewer acres planted and lower yields per acre, Kentucky’s winter wheat production for 2018 is down steeply from the previous year.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service released its Small Grains Summary Report from the Small Grains Production Survey conducted in September, and it isn’t good news for Kentucky agriculture.

“Kentucky winter wheat production was disappointing in 2018, both from a quantity and quality standpoint,” David Knopf, director of the NASS Eastern Mountain Regional Office in Kentucky, said in a news release. “I have heard more than one producer remark that this was their worst wheat crop ever.”

Farmers harvested 19.8 million bushels of winter wheat during the summer of 2018. This was down 17 percent from the previous year.

“Harvested acres were down from a year ago, but most of the production decline is the result of a 14 percent drop in yield,” Knopf said. “Unfavorable weather during the growing season and harvest limited yield potential and resulted in lighter test weights.”

Yield is estimated at 66 bushels per acre, down 11 bushels from 2017. Farmers seeded 450,000 acres last fall, down 30,000 acres from 2017.