U.S. winter wheat area plunges to lowest since 1909

Date:01-16-2017

U.S. producers cut back on winter wheat acres even more sharply than expected this past fall.

A winter wheat seedings report released last Thursday by the USDA pegged nationwide winter wheat acres for harvest in 2017 at 32.4 million, down 10% from a year earlier and below the average pre-report trade guess of 34.3 million. In fact, if accurate, it would be the smallest U.S. winter wheat seeded area since 1909, and the second smallest on record.

U.S. winter wheat area was expected to take a severe hit due to plentiful world wheat supplies and weak prices below the cost of breakeven for most producers. U.S. producers also cut back acres in 2016, although fantastic yields meant American winter wheat production still increased from the previous year.

As expected, Hard Red Winter took the biggest hit, with seeded area for 2017 estimated at 23.3 million acres, down 12% from the previous year. Soft Red Winter area, at an estimated 5.68 million acres, is down 6% from a year earlier, while White Winter seedings are off 4% to 3.37 million acres.

The largest overall declines in planted acreage are estimated in the Great Plains, with record low acreage seeded in Nebraska and Utah. In the primary Hard Red production state of Kansas, producers seeded an estimated 7.4 million acres to winter wheat, a 1.1 million or 13% drop from the previous year. In Texas and Oklahoma, seeded area fell an identical 10% to 4.5 million acres, while Nebraska seeded area plunged 20% to just over 1 million acres.

In the Soft Red state of Michigan, producers hacked seeded area by 23% from a year earlier to 470,000 acres, while those in Ohio reduced acreage by 16% to 490,000.

Although not a big winter wheat producer, North Dakota winter wheat seeded area was cut in half to just 65,000 acres for harvest in 2017.