Winter Wheat Plantings Down Nationwide

The USDA has finally released it's first look at the winter wheat plantings.  Those figures were delayed because of the government shutdown.

"We do see winter wheat planted acres coming in at 31.3 million acres, down 4% year-over-year,” according to USDA Chief Economist Robb Johannson.  “That was mostly due to weather conditions at the time, we had poor planting conditions."

Johannson added that continues a recent trend of decreasing winter wheat planted acres.

"That will be the second-lowest planted acres ever, going back to 1909. Record lows in Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, West Virginia, and lowest in Kansas since the '50s."

By class, hard red winter wheat planting acreage is expected down 3% nationwide, soft red winter 7% less from the year before, and white winter wheat seeded areas down 3% from the previous year.

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