Idaho The Top Barley Producer in The U.S.

Idaho is once again the top barley producing state in the country. According to the USDA’s 2020 Small Grains Annual Summary, Idaho’s barley crop this year was 1% largest than last year’s thanks to higher yields.

In 2020, 500,000 acres of barley were harvested in Idaho, with the average yield of 110 bu/acre. That compares to 2019's numbers of 520,000 acres harvest for an average yield of 105 bu/acre.

Other top producing barley states include Montana, North Dakota, Colorado and Wyoming rounding out the top five. Washington and Oregon came in #6 and #7 respectively.

Here are the barley production numbers over the past two years:

Idaho                              33.3% (2020) 31.9% (2019)

Montana                       27.6% (2020) 26.0% (2019)

North Dakota                17.5% (2020) 18.6% (2019)

Colorado                        4.0% (2020) 4.2% (2019)

Wyoming                       3.6% (2020) 4.1% (2019)

Washington                  3.9% (2020) 3.5% (2019)

Oregon                           1.1% (2020)      1.5% (2019)

Montana harvested the most acres at 725,000 compared to 500,000 for Idaho, but their average yield was only 63 bu/acre. North Dakota’s production slipped farther keeping them solidly at #3 in the state ranking for U.S. barley production.

According to the USDA report, total U.S. barley production was estimated at 165 million bushels, down 4% from the revised 2019 total of 172 million bushels. The average yield, at 77.5 bu/acre, a decrease of 0.2 bushel year over year. Producers seeded 2.62 million acres in 2020, down 5% from 2019. Harvested area, at 2.13 million acres, was down 4% from 2019.

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