Washington winter wheat production is expected to reach 119 million bushels this year, a 66-bushel-per-acre yield - respectable but not a record, according to the Capital Press newspaper.

In fact, Washington's winter wheat production has held steady over the past several years, according to officials, partly because of a decline in other crops, including spring wheat and barley acreage. Joe Parsons, deputy director of the National Agricultural Statistic Service's Washington field office, told the Capital Press that this phenomenon has allowed winter wheat acres to remain constant.

The record for winter wheat production in Washington was set in 2000, when farmers were rewarded with a crop of 131 million bushels, for a per-acre average yield of 73 bushels an acre. Nationally, winter wheat production is expected to reach 1.62 billion bushels this year, up 24 percent from 2006, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service. In 2006, farmers, despite prices for soft white wheat making a run near the $4-a-bushel range, were concerned about the industry, in part because of $3-plus diesel prices. This year, however, farmers are getting a good price for their wheat, with the per-bushel range at $6.06 to $6.13.