What Does Bushels Per Acre Mean?

This Week In Ag #184

In crop production, we often talk about the final yield calculated in bushels per acre. Because that’s how grain farmers get paid.

But what exactly does bushels per acre mean?

A bushel is the unit of measure we use in the USA (other parts of the world use tons or metric tons) to calculate yield, verify shipments and set pricing standards for commodity crops such as corn, soybeans, wheat, canola, rice and sorghum.

There’s a good chance your grandparents had a bushel basket lying around their house, garage, or barn. If you were to fill that basket to the brim with corn, for example, you’d have one bushel’s worth.

So how did we get to using bushels to establish grain standards? This dates to the Middle Ages. Bushel baskets were popular containers in the British Isles, so they were used to facilitate fair grain trade (provided, of course, that everyone used the same-sized containers!).

Over time, volume measurements were established to further refine the standards. This resulted in various weight assignments per bushel, depending on the grain. For corn and rye, one bushel equals 56 pounds. For soybeans and wheat, it’s 60 pounds. So, if your wheat crop yields 70 bushels per acre, you will essentially have 4,200 pounds of grain per acre.

Bushels aren’t just exclusive to grain. While fruits, nuts and vegetables are often sold by the pound in retail stores, they can be sold by the bushel at orchards and farmers’ markets. Like grain crops, weights are assigned. For apples, 48 pounds equals one bushel. That’s about 100-120 apples, depending on the variety and size.

Another popular measurement is the peck. Four pecks equal one bushel. You’re no doubt familiar with the famous tongue-twister “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers”. Now you know Peter picked enough peppers to fill one-quarter of that bushel basket you saw at your grandparents’ house.