With their 2022 crop fetching the highest season-average price on record, wheat farmers sowed 36.95 million acres of winter wheat for harvest this spring and summer — the largest total in seven years, said the Agriculture Department on Thursday. Wheat prices soared following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February, and winter wheat, the dominant U.S. variety, offered the first chance for American growers to respond to high global demand for wheat.
Growers increased wheat plantings by 11 percent, or 3.7 million acres, from last year, despite drought that covers most of the Plains, the heart of winter wheat production. “The U.S. winter wheat seedings were off the charts, but one state — Texas — has 50 percent of the gain,” said Jerry Gidel of Midland Research in Chicago.
The USDA’s estimate of winter wheat sowings, based on a survey of growers, exceeded the 34.5 million acres expected by traders. The largest estimate among Chicago analysts was 36.2 million acres.
Also on Thursday, the USDA said the Russian wheat crop totaled 91 million tonnes in 2022, 21 percent larger than the preceding year, due mostly to a record yield of 3.17 tonnes per hectare. Ukraine’s wheat crop was estimated at 21 million tonnes, down 36 percent from 2021. “The bulk of Ukraine’s wheat for marketing year 2022/23 was planted prior to the conflict, but major seasonal work and harvest occurred after the invasion began,” said the USDA’s monthly World Agricultural Production report.
The annual USDA Winter Wheat and Canola Seedings report is available here.