US winter wheat seedings down 5%

U.S. farmers have planted about 40.5 million acres of winter wheat for harvest in 2015, down 5 percent from a year earlier, USDA said in a report.

 

About 29.5 million acres of red winter wheat were sown, down 3 percent the previous year, USDA said. Some 7.5 million acres of the soft red winter variety were planted, down 12 percent. White winter wheat seeded area totaled 3.48 million acres, up 2 percent, USDA said. Seeding began in August and by the end of September was well ahead of the five-year average; field work was mostly complete by the middle of November.
 

Kansas is once again the biggest winter-wheat state, with 9,400,000 planted acres, down 2 percent from a year ago. Texas (5,900,000 acres) and Oklahoma (5,100,000 acres) are the next biggest, according to USDA figures.
 

USDA's estimates were based on a probability survey that includes a sample of over 83,000 farm operators. The survey was conducted in the first two weeks of December.