
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 13, 1990                   TAG: 9007130268
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

WHEAT CROP HARVESTS HIGHEST IN SIX YEARS

Wheat farmers are harvesting a bumper crop estimated at 2.7 billion bushels, up 33 percent from last year and the biggest output in six years, the Agriculture Department said Thursday.

"This would be the largest crop since 1982 and the third largest on record," the department said in a report.

And it will be a near-record production at that. Records show the biggest U.S. wheat crops were back-to-back in 1981 with 2.79 billion bushels and 1982 with 2.77 billion bushels.

Flue-cured tobacco production was forecast at 856 million pounds, up 6 percent from last year, reflecting a larger acreage.

In a related supply-and-demand report, "highly tentative" projections of 1990 production of corn showed the fall harvest might total 7.85 billion bushels.

by CNB