U.S. farmers pursue soybean profits, shrug at tight wheat stocks
American farmers say they will plant more soybeans — a record 91 million acres — and less corn and spring wheat despite tight global wheat supplies that have been compounded by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine are two of the world’s largest wheat exporters, and Ukraine is a leading corn supplier.
Crop tour points to lowest spring wheat yield since 2008
A three-day lightning tour of the spring wheat crop in the northern Plains points to the lowest average yield in nine years, “a sign of the intense drought conditions plaguing much of the western Dakotas this year,” said DTN. Crop scouts checked 496 fields and saw a “high number of abandoned fields in the western counties, many of which had been cut and baled for hay” because the wheat was not worth harvesting.
Drought-scalded spring wheat crop to be smallest in 15 years
The deepening drought in the northern Plains will result in the smallest harvest of spring wheat since 2002 — 423 million bushels, said USDA in its first forecast of the crop. Futures prices for hard red spring wheat, a high-quality variety and 90 percent of all U.S. spring wheat, soared in the past month as dry weather threatened a squeeze on supplies.