Field Notes: The 2026 Mid-Atlantic Wheat Tour Report

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Annual Wheat Tour Provides Direct Field Insights For The Region’s Flour Millers and Buyers

A collage featuring wheat fields, speakers at a conference, and participants engaging in discussions for the 2026 Mid-Atlantic Wheat Tour.

During the first two weeks of June, agronomists, flour millers, and grain industry professionals traveled across Virginia, Delmarva, Maryland’s Western Shore, Pennsylvania, and New York, stopping at wheat fields along the way as part of the 16th annual Mid-Atlantic Soft Wheat Tour.

PennAg Industries had the pleasure of hosting the tour dinner as participants gathered in Manheim for an educational session and a Field Walk hosted by Penn State Extension’s Agronomy team to share scouting reports from Pennsylvania wheat fields.

PennAg would also like to extend its sincere gratitude to the dinner attendees for their donations to the PennAg Scholarship.

In addition to the Pennsylvania reports, scouts from Delmarva, Maryland, and New York joined the dinner in Manheim to give reports from their states. 

Pennsylvania:

In Berks, Lancaster, and Lebanon counties, fields showed signs of damage from head scab; in one Lancaster field, the tour group found lodging caused by strong winds and heavy rains; aphid and cereal leaf beetle activity was observed despite pesticide applications of Palisade.

Across fields in the southeast region, tour captains Stephanie Stoudt of Albright’s Mill in Kempton, and Jarrett Hostetter from Hostetter Grain Inc., in Oxford, led their tour group alongside Del Voight, an agronomy educator with Penn State Extension.

Voight estimates yields will range from 80 to 91 bushels per acre. Overall, crop quality appears strong, but yields are expected to decline due to frost damage and dry weather. In addition, Voight says the average crop height ranged from 20 to 36 inches. He believes the average is about 27 inches.

In Adams and York counties, scouts found evidence that the cold snap and dry weather reduced yield potential, but they remain optimistic about good quality, as disease and pest pressure were low.

To the west of Adams County, in Franklin, it’s a slightly different story, as the county is currently in a moderate drought and Larry Meyers, one of the area’s tour captains, says that the wheat crop’s height is 22-32 inches high, which is a lot shorter than last year.

Some fields showed evidence of cereal leaf beetle feeding, as well as diseases including powdery mildew and head scab. Meyers told the group at dinner that he estimates the average yield could be 77 bushels per acre, which is also lower than it was five years ago. 

Delmarva: 

Tour captains Leland Sproull of Leland Commodities and Mark Sultenfuss, an agronomist and crop insurance agent with Nagel Farm Service in Easton, Md., led the group through fields in central Delaware, then traveled south and west into Maryland and northern Delaware. 

Across the region, fields showed clear signs of damage from frost and drought. The southern part of the area had thinner-than-normal heads or twisted leaves. Sultenfuss says that he estimates that yields will vary widely. 

Non-irrigated fields may yield 60 to 70 bushels an acre, while irrigated fields — especially in the north — look much better and will likely yield more than 100 bushels. He also says that what he is seeing in the fields suggests quality could be good, since disease, including head scab pressure, was reduced compared to last year. 

Two people walking through a wheat field under a cloudy sky.
A man speaking and gesturing in a classroom setting, with a window and curtains in the background.
A speaker stands in front of an audience in a meeting room, gesturing while holding a smartphone. Attendees are seated at tables, listening attentively.
A speaker presenting to an audience in a meeting room, with attendees seated and engaged, some taking notes.
A speaker stands in front of an audience seated at tables in a large room, engaging the crowd with hand gestures while discussing a topic.
Close-up view of a wheat field with tall green stalks under a cloudy sky.
A speaker presenting to an audience in a meeting room, with attendees seated and listening attentively.
An elderly man in a plaid shirt speaks to an audience seated at tables in a meeting room, while several attendees listen attentively.
Three men engaging in a buffet-style meal, with one man serving food while the others interact happily. The setting appears to be a casual dining area with windows and light-colored walls.
A close-up view of green wheat stalks in a field with a blue sky and distant hills in the background.
A speaker presenting to an audience in a conference room, with a focus on the speaker and blurred foreground.
An elderly man with a beard stands at the front of a gathering, reading from a paper. Attendees seated at tables, some wearing caps, listen attentively in a well-lit meeting room.
A speaker presenting to an audience in a conference room, with attendees seated around a table, engaged in the discussion.
A group of people enjoying a meal together around a long table, featuring various food items, condiments, and a decorative plant in the center.
A man with a white beard and green cap speaks to a group seated at tables in a well-lit room.
Close-up view of wheat fields under a pastel sky at dusk

Western Shore Maryland:

George Mielke, one of the owners and operators of Trenton Mill Farms, and Jim Beyers, an agronomist from Williard Ag, who led a group to nine different fields to see six varieties of wheat, reported that his group observed little to no powdery mildew pressure in the fields.

Overall, Beyers says disease pressure was low this spring, resulting in good quality, but the recent frost and drought have negatively impacted yields.

Beyers also added that the crop height ranged from 29 to 32 inches, and he estimates yields at about 80 bushels per acre.

New York: 

The Wheat Belt in New York, the North Central region, has had a lot of rain and continuous wet weather, which has put the Empire State’s wheat crop further behind than usual, according to Scott Walters from DuMond Grain in Union Springs, New York, who spoke to the group in Manheim.

Walters said he could not provide a detailed report during the dinner because New York’s wheat tour was taking place that same day. Preliminary observations indicated shorter-than-normal heads in some fields.

Virginia:

From the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula of Virginia, Robert Harper, Virginia Farm Bureau Federation grain manager and a key coordinator for the Virginia portion of the Mid-Atlantic Wheat tour held on Thursday, May 28, assisted in leading the tour group to visit 10 different wheat fields.

Harper says prolonged drought and a late-season frost negatively affected crop development across the region. He estimates that the five wheat farms the group toured in the Northern Neck averaged 69 bushels per acre. Averages for the five Middle Peninsula farms totaled an estimated 47 bushels per acre.

The “Old Dominion” wheat tour is organized by the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation and the Virginia Cooperative Extension, in partnership with the Eastern Virginia Agricultural Research and Extension Center.

The wheat report was written by Courtney Love, Communications and Marketing Specialist at PennAg Industries.

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