American farmers harvested 1.53 billion bushels of wheat in 2026 across 31.9 million acres, with winter wheat making up the largest share of production, according to Small Grains Summary data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Winter wheat dominated the harvest, producing 1.02 billion bushels from 20.9 million acres. The crop yielded 48.8 bushels per acre, making it the most productive wheat variety by volume. Farmers planted 31.2 million acres of winter wheat, though not all made it to harvest.
Spring wheat, excluding durum varieties, came in second with 449.6 million bushels harvested from 9.4 million acres. The crop achieved a yield of 48 bushels per acre. Growers planted 9.6 million acres of spring wheat at the start of the season.
Durum wheat, used primarily for pasta production, represented the smallest portion of the wheat harvest. Farmers brought in 64.8 million bushels from 1.6 million acres, with yields reaching 39.7 bushels per acre. Producers planted 1.7 million acres of durum wheat.
Oats production reached 69.1 million bushels in 2026, down 1% from 2025. Farmers harvested 917,000 acres for grain, a 3% drop from last year. Despite the smaller harvest area, yields improved to 75.3 bushels per acre, up 1.5 bushels from the previous year. The higher yield per acre helped offset some of the production decline from reduced acreage.
Barley saw the steepest decline among the major grains. National production fell to 116 million bushels, down 19% from 2025. Harvested area dropped 10% to 1.60 million acres. Yields also declined sharply, averaging 72.1 bushels per acre, down 7.8 bushels from the previous year. The combination of reduced acreage and lower yields per acre created the significant production drop.
