Winter Wheat Planting At Lowest Level in 109 years

The area of winter wheat seeded is slightly down from the previous year per USDA, and that has drawn some attention in a couple of areas.  It may be the most surprising news that came out of the USDA's release of crop productions, supply and demand and grain stock reports on Friday.

"We're down only about three percent year-over-year in the winter wheat planted acres to 32-point-6 million acres."

Which Agriculture Department Chief Economist Rob Johannson said, in and of itself is not news...however, comparing USDA numbers with what the industry was forecasting.

"We think the trade was expecting us to come in lower than that, so we are at the upper end of that range...in fact, over the upper end of that range at 32-point-6 million acres. So, its down from last year, but not quite down as much as the industry was expecting."

Yet, what USDA releaved for winter wheat acres planted was higher than industry estimates, Johannson said even more significant.

"That is still the second-lowest on record since 1909."

By category, while hard, red winter seeded area is expected to be down 2-percent, soft red winter seeding is forecasted up 4-percent from one year ago.

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