FARGO, N.D.: Harvest yields for the 2019 US hard red spring wheat crop were projected at 43.1 bushels per acre, an annual crop tour said on Thursday, up from the tour's projection of 41.1 bushels per acre in 2018 but below its five-year average of 44.7 bushels per acre.

Scouts on the Wheat Quality Council's three-day tour of top spring wheat production state North Dakota and parts of Minnesota surveyed 356 spring wheat fields and 15 durum fields.

It projected durum yields of 32.0 bushels per acre compared with the five-year average of 40.0 bushels per acre and 39.3 bushels per acre in 2018.