Hop harvest has begun in Oregon (where I’ll be in two weeks). This is roadkill from a previous harvest.
Perhaps I will try to make “fun with numbers” a semi-regular Friday feature. We’ll see.
When I received an email last week declaring “Oregon Retakes No. 2 Spot for U.S. Hop Crop” I was en route to Argentina, so wasn’t inclined to do some necessary math. Several sites have since posted the information.
It is a fact that Oregon farmers strung 5,421 acres for harvest and Idaho 5,109. But . . .
Last year, average yield per acre was 1,732 in Oregon and 2,273 in Idaho. If yields are identical this year (they won’t be) then Oregon farmers will harvest 9,389,172 pounds of hops and Idaho farmers 11,612,757. In my mind, more pounds of hops trumps more acres.
This is not to say that the difference in yield will be as large this year. Idaho farmers will harvest far fewer acres of Helios this year (the USDA has withheld the numbers to avoid disclosing data for individual operations) and last year the average yield for Helios was 3,092.
Expect ad update in December, when the USDA posts final results of harvest.