January 13, 2009

Almost all of the winter wheat for harvest in 2009 has been planted, but seeding is about 9 percent less than a year ago, according to data released Monday (January 12) by the US Department of Agriculture.

"Planted area for harvest in 2009 is estimated at 42.1 million acres, down 9 percent from 2008," the USDA said. "Seeding began last August behind the five-year average pace and remained behind until mid-November due to wet weather and delayed row-crop harvest."

US farmers had planted about 46.3 million acres with winter wheat a year ago.

There has been less winter wheat planted for the 2009-10 marketing year, but the condition of the wheat is better than it was a year ago, the USDA said.

"The winter wheat crop condition at the end of November was rated 65 percent good-to-excellent compared with 44 percent the previous year," the USDA said in the Monday report. US farmers have planted 30.2 million acres of hard red winter wheat for 2009 harvest, a 4 percent drop from a year ago, according to the USDA report.

Acreage for HRW wheat "is below last year's level in all states" except Colorado and Texas, the USDA said. "The late row-crop harvest and lower prices limited planted acres in most parts of the [HRW-growing] region with planted area down 600,000 acres in Kansas and down 200,000 in Oklahoma."

Planting for soft red winter wheat fell even more steeply with a 26 percent drop to 8.29 million acres this year.

Farmers have planted 3.62 million acres of white winter wheat, a 1 percent increase from a year ago.