Colorado Winter Wheat Varieties 2014 Crop: USDA/NASS

This report provides the results of the Winter Wheat Seedings by Variety Survey, 2014 Crop, conducted by the National Agricultural Statistics Service, Colorado Field Office. The survey was funded by the Colorado Wheat Administrative Committee. The survey was not sampled to provide a direct expansion of the seeded acreage by variety or a measure of the sampling error. While a sufficient number of responses were tabulated to identify the major varieties of winter wheat for the state and major districts, the varietal percentages at the district and/or county level may not be adequately represented. 

Colorado wheat producers seeded an estimated 2.9 million acres to winter wheat in the fall of 2013 for harvest in 2014, up from 2.3 million acres seeded for the 2013 crop. This is the largest winter wheat seeded area in Colorado since 1997. The significant increase in current seeded acreage created heavy demand for seed, in some cases exceeding the supply of certified seed for varieties having the most desirable traits. 

Hatcher was once again the most popular variety seeded in Colorado, planted on 25.2 percent of the acreage for the 2014 crop compared with 30.0 percent for the 2013 crop.

Byrd jumped to the second most popular variety by accounting for 14.8 percent of the acreage, up from only1.0 percent for the 2013 crop.

TAM 111 continued to hold third place for the 2014 crop by accounting for 5.4 percent of the acres seeded, below the 8.1 percent seeded for 2013.

Snowmass retained fourth place with 5.1 percent of the acreage, equal to the 5.1percent of last year’s crop.

Ripper dropped to fifth place with 4.4 percent of the acreage, a decrease from 8.5 percent of the acreage last year. The top five varieties accounted for 54.9 percent of the acreage seeded.

Bill Brown became the sixth leading variety with 2.7 percent of the acreage seeded, down from 3.9 percent and fifth place last year.

TAM 112 slipped to seventh place from sixth place last year, with 2.5 percent of the acreage.

Brawl CL Plus earned the eighth place ranking by accounting for 2.3 percent of the acreage seeded.

Prairie Red moved up to ninth along with Prowers & Prowers 99 with 2.2 percent of the acreage seeded compared with fourteenth and nineteenth, respectively, last year.  

The top 10 varieties represented 66.8 percent of the state’s total acreage seeded for the 2014 crop. In 2013 the top ten varieties accounted for 67.8 percent of the total seeded acreage. 

Issued February 24, 2014