2018 U.S. Wheat Crop A Mixed Bag

USDA'S 2018 wrap up of the wheat crop shows winter wheat producers achieving the third highest yield ever, "but we had record low harvested acreage," Lance Honig with USDA's statistics service.  He added it's the fifth straight year of declines in winter wheat acreage.

The result this time? "You get the 6.7% decline in production" at 1.18 billion bushels he noted.

Opposite story for other spring wheat,"planted acreage was up nearly 20% this year, harvested acreage was up 27% of course less abandonment this year.  Last year we had a lot of problems with drought".

So yields this time 48.3 bushels an acre, for other spring wheat..."highest yield on record"..similar story for Durham wheat.  Add it all up and you get all wheat production 1.88 billion bushels up 8% from 2017.  USDA reports stocks to start the new season at almost 2.4 billion bushels up 5 percent from the starting block last year.

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