Early Fall 2026 Crop Report

Oregon and Washington Basin Crop Updates

We are hopeful for average clean outs, but a several fields have cleaned out incredibly heavy because of light unfilled seed heads, all that to say dirt-weights in the Oregon Willamette Valley may not be a good indication of actual yield.  

Kentucky Bluegrass

Nezperce (dryland)

Dirt-weight yields have all come in right around average. If fields clean out normally, we will see an average yield.

WA Basin

Overall Kentucky bluegrass crop looks average. Some varieties were down 30% and some were up 30%.

Fine Fescue

Overall crop was average to 10% below average. It will be difficult to know how fields will clean out because there was a lot of light seeds that will end up getting blown out at cleaning. The light seeds were caused by the crop drying out before it was fully mature. This is to be expected with the dry summer and later maturing crops.

Tall Fescue

Tall fescues were mostly average, with dryland being 10% or more below average.

Perennial Ryegrass

Perennial ryegrass irrigated acres were average; dryland acres were 20% or more below average. The later maturing varieties on dryland did even worse.

Clovers

Yields ended up below average, and seed lots are showing a lot soil in the tests. The light yield is attributed to seed weevils and mice. The mice contributed to the excessive soil in some lots. The few growers who have cleaned already are seeing 50% cleanouts due to the unfilled seed from the weevils.

Annual Ryegrass

Yield was average, with some fields or varieties coming in 5-10% below average.

Bentgrass

Fields were mostly average.

Turnips

Yield was about average.

North East Oregon Crop Update The 2026 crop for Kentucky Bluegrass and fine fescue in North East Oregon ended up being about average to slightly above average. There were fields that yielded very well but there was a late frost that hit some areas and a few fields were hurt as a result.  We also ended up short on water in a few areas that hurt yields.   As we clean this crop, our recoveries have been a little above average. 

Looking ahead for 2027 we should see a slight increase in bluegrass acres but we will continue to see fine fescue acres decline.  Some of the August plantings have gone in later than desired and that will be reflected in lower yields in 2027.  Also, due to the wildfires and smoke affecting air quality there have been no fields burned so far.  This will also be reflected in lower yields and more problems in 2027. Native Seed Crop Update

Current market conditions indicate that supply of several key cool-season reclamation species are expected to be short. In particular, intermediate wheatgrass, pubescent wheatgrass, Siberian wheatgrass, crested wheatgrass, Idaho fescue, basin wildrye, and Appar blue flax are all anticipated to have limited availability.

Supplies of the remaining cool-season reclamation grasses appear to be stable, with availability generally expected to remain adequate to meet current demand.

Given the anticipated shortages in several species, customers with upcoming reclamation projects may want to plan their seed requirements early to help secure desired species and quantities. We will continue to monitor production, harvest conditions, and overall market availability and can provide updates as the season progresses.