Largest U.S. winter wheat plantings in seven years
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.
Flash drought hits High Plains
Drought deepened during “quite the dry week” in the High Plains, said the Drought Monitor on Thursday. “Flash drought conditions are impacting the region, especially in the Dakotas, where warm, dry, and windy conditions have provided ideal harvest conditions but have started taking a toll.”
Drought in Plains and Southeast, says NOAA’s winter forecast
Winter will be drier and warmer than usual for the central to southern Plains and the Southeast, said government forecasters on Thursday, suggesting there would be little drought relief in major wheat-growing states or precipitation to restore water levels in the Mississippi River. It would be the third U.S. winter in a row under the La Niña pattern, which typically brings warmer and drier weather to the U.S. southern tier, from California to the Carolinas.
Growers sow winter wheat despite arid conditions
More than half of U.S. winter wheat territory is in drought but growers are sowing the grain at a faster pace than usual, said the Crop Progress report on Monday. In USDA's first look at the new crop, it said the grain was planted on 21 percent of winter wheat land in the 18 leading states, 4 points ahead of the five-year average.
Thanks to war, wheat-soy double crop shines
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.
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.
Drought worsens in wheat-growing Plains
The long-running drought that covers more than half of the continental United States — mostly west of the Mississippi — worsened in the central and southern Plains last week, the heart of U.S. winter wheat production, said the government's Drought Monitor on Thursday. In Kansas, the No. 1 winter wheat state, 31 percent of the crop was rated as being in poor or very poor condition.
Wheat crop withers in northern Plains, Pacific Northwest
The wheat harvest in the northern Plains and Pacific Northwest will be 40 percent smaller than last year due to severe drought, said the USDA on Monday. The declines in durum and spring wheat were so great they would reduce overall U.S. wheat production, dominated by winter wheat, by 8 percent …
Drought eases in central Plains, worsens in the north
Widespread rainfall in northwestern Kansas eased arid conditions in the No. 1 winter wheat state as this year’s crop nears maturity, said the weekly Drought Monitor. Still, some 69 percent of Kansas remains in drought.
Smallest U.S. winter wheat crop in 16 years
Searing drought in the central and southern Plains will result in the smallest winter wheat crop since 2002 and the second smallest in 47 years, said the USDA in its first estimate of the summer harvest.
Drought fries wheat crop in Kansas and Oklahoma
Kansas will reap its smallest winter wheat crop since 1989 and neighboring Oklahoma will harvest half of its usual total because of a months-long drought in the Plains, crop scouts said on Thursday after touring the winter wheat belt.
Drought imperils winter wheat in the Plains
When the winter wheat crop breaks dormancy over the next few weeks, it will face arid conditions in the central and southern Plains due to an extraordinarily dry winter, said an agricultural meteorologist.
Snow drought in western U.S. raises concerns about water supply
Snowpack in parts of the Rocky Mountains is at record lows because of warmer than usual weather, “raising concerns about water supplies and economic damage,” says Inside Climate News.
Farmer survey points to smallest winter wheat sowing since 1909
Wheat growers sowed 31.2 million acres of winter wheat for harvest this spring, the lowest figure since 1909 for the dominant type of U.S. wheat, according to a survey of farmers by Farm Futures. It would be a declne of 4.5 percent from last year and reflect poor profit potential of the wheat compared to other crops.
Winterkill imperils wheat in central Plains and southern Corn Belt
U.S. wheat growers already were on track for what was expected to be one of the smallest crops in years, and bitter cold this week is making the USDA projection look more likely.
Winter wheat is potential cover crop for Plains cotton growers
A simulation by Texas A&M scientists indicates that winter wheat is a feasible cover crop for cotton growers in the arid Plains, says one of the researchers.
Crop tour estimates 40-percent plunge in Kansas wheat output
Kansas farmers sharply scaled back winter wheat sowings because of low market prices, assuring a smaller crop this year than last. Now disease, snowfall, and freeze damage this spring are dragging prospects down even further.
Kansas farmers watch and wait to see what blizzard did to their wheat crop
For wheat farmers in western Kansas, the heavy snow and freezing temperatures that recently swept through their region were a one-two punch that flattened a promising crop.