The harvest of wheat sowed in the 2024 winter was 73% complete in 18 U.S.’ states by July 20, 2025.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Crop Progress of July 21 mentioned that southern-central states like Arkansas and Texas lead completion.
By July 20, the 18 states representing 91% of the 2024 federal wheat crop had reaped 73% vis-á-vis 75% a year earlier.
The harvest in Arkansas was 100% over by July 13, echoing a similar completion cap on July 20, 2024.
Texas was meanwhile at 97% on the 20th, a little behind a similar date in 2024 when the harvest had hit 100%.
At 80% completion, California made slightly better harvesting progress before July 20, 2025 than the corresponding 2024’s 79%. This is even as Nebraska recorded the worst progress drop at 35%, versus 84% a year ago.
Three western/northwestern states, namely Montana at 0% harvest completion, Idaho ( 4%) and Washington (5%), reprised similar lags as in 2024.
The delay in these western frontier could prolong because there will be a 10-day wheat belt rain interim late July.
Summer heat will then help culminate the harvest, albeit in western states below-average productivity is on the cards.
48% Good-to-Excellent Rating
Earlier on a July 7 report, the USDA had labeled the winter wheat crop as 48% good-to-excellent. This had precipitated a markdown in pricing across domestic and international markets for wheat futures.
Although a slight drop from the rating of early July 2024 at 51%, it was however unchanged month-on-month.
By the 7th, the current crop’s protein measure was averaging 11.9%, similar to 2024’s, but 1% lower than the 2020-24 median.
Federal soft red winter wheat scything was meanwhile 91% complete by July 13, with productivity in Illinois, Kentucky and Ohio posting 6.7 tonnes/hectare.
Overall, all winter wheat is slightly below that of 2024 in protein content, but at par in harvesting progress. To learn more on how this long season grain performs statistically in the United States, peruse the below data.
United States Winter Wheat Statistics
After fall sowing followed by a dormancy period under ice, winter wheat reaping occurs the next summer, 7-8 months later. Despite this prolonged wait, it provides over 50% of all wheat production in the United States. Combined, hard red winter and soft red winter wheat had a 2024-25 production total of 1.112 billion bushels. While durum produced 80 million bushels in the 2024-25 period, hard red spring clocked 503 million bushels and hard red winter 770 million bushels. Soft red winter meanwhile garnered an intermediate 342 million bushels, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
How big by variety is the 2025 winter crop?
Projections show that the hard red winter (HRW) variety will top the 2025 winter wheat harvest at 56.1% or 20.5 million tonnes. Soft red winter (SRW) will represent 25% or 9.2 million tonnes, while soft white (SHW) will garner 17.4% or 6.4 million tonnes.
Does winter wheat yield better than other seasonal wheat in the U.S.?
According to the WASDE reports, soft red winter wheat historically posts better yield rates than other seasonal wheat. This is per the table below:
| Year | Hard red winter [bu/acre] | Soft red winter [bu/acre] | Hard red spring [bu/ace] | Durum [bu/acre] |
| 2025-26 [projection] | 44.5 | 74.1 | 51.2 | 38.7 |
| 2024-25 | 42.5 | 76.3 | 51.9 | 39.3 |