Agricultural News
Oklahoma Wheat Crop Plantings at 5.4 Million Acres for Possible 2011 Harvest
Wed, 12 Jan 2011 8:48:13 CST
No major surprises were seen in the 2011 winter wheat crop seedings report that was issued by USDA on Wednesday morning. USDA projects a ten percent increase in the number of acres planted for the 2011 crop versus the 2010 plantings. They are about eight percent less than the plantings for the 2009 crop.
The biggest gains were seen in the delta and mid south. Arkansas jumped plantings by 225% compared to 2010- and the 450,000 acres they seeded this past fall is larger than their 430,000 acres planted in the fall of 2008 for the 2009 harvest. Likewise, Mississippi farmers saw the high wheat prices and added a lot of soft red winter wheat acres. Mississippi planted 300,00 acres this past fall- 240% more than a year ago and also well above their 2009 crop acreage. Another state that grows soft red winter wheat, Illinois, also saw a considerable number of acres compared to the fall of 2009 going into the ground. Illinois planted 740,000 acres this past fall- up from 330,000 acres a year earlier.
In the Hard Red Winter Wheat region- the numbers are higher than a year ago- but not nearly as eye popping. Oklahoma stayed above five million acres on plantings of hard red winter wheat at 5.4 million acres- up 2% from a year ago but 300,000 less acres than was planted in the fall of 2008 for harvest in 2009. That season was the one where we had drought and multiple late freezes that ended up with many farmers having only a half crop when harvest came.
Other HRW states include Kansas with five percent more acres planted this year than last at 8.8 million acres, Colorado at 2.5 million acres and 2% more than the 2010 harvest year and Texas up just one percent in plantings of wheat at 5.75 million acres compared to 5.7 million acres a year ago. Many of the eastern Texas acres are actually SRW acres, so Kansas and Oklahoma continue to be the two top HRW states, followed by Texas.
With the dry weather that much of the HRW wheat belt has experienced since planting- the question is how many acres will be in good enough shape to be harvested for grain next June? That's the question that is not answered by these numbers from USDA.
Click here for the full wheat seedings report from USDA as released on Wednesday morning, January 12, 2011.
Tom Leffler talked with Ed Richards about all of the USDA reports out on Tuesday morning- click on the LISTEN BAR below to hear their conversation.
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