Last spring, the Biden administration encouraged U.S. farmers to grow more wheat in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and said it would make crop insurance more widely available for growers who wanted to team winter wheat with soybeans. Now there’s another inducement: Double-crop wheat and soybeans would be more profitable in 2023 than standalone corn or soybeans, say university economists.
Based on current futures prices, double-crop wheat and soybeans would have an $81-an-acre higher return, “one of the largest in recent history,” than corn or soybeans in southern Illinois and a $26-an-acre higher return than soybeans in central Illinois, said six economists at the farmdoc daily blog.
“Making wheat-double-crop-soybeans profitable requires management,” warned the economists, who listed some precautions for growers to consider. The rotation requires a relatively early wheat harvest and speedy planting of soybeans, they said, and as with any new system, there is a learning curve.
“The above considerations suggest that growing the wheat-double-crop-soybeans likely should be a management practice longer than one year,” they said. “Farmers considering wheat-double-crop-soybeans before the Ukraine-Russian War may find current prices motivating to move into the practice.”
Since 1998, about 11 percent of U.S. winter wheat seedings have been followed by double-crop soybeans. A Purdue University survey of farmers last spring found that nearly three of every 10 growers with double-crop wheat and soybean experience planned to plant more winter wheat this fall. Increased U.S. production would buffer the disruptions to food supply chains because of the war in the Black Sea region. Russia and Ukraine are two of the world’s leading wheat exporters.