U.S. Wheat Exports End Year Close to USDA Estimate

By Claire Hutchins, USW Market Analyst Despite challenging market factors, U.S. wheat exports for marketing year (MY) 2018/19, which ended May 31, totaled 25.8 million metric tons (MMT) (948 million bushels), in line with USDA’s adjusted export volume estimate. That is 9% ahead of MY 2017/18 and 1% ahead of the 5-year average of 25.5 […]

Revenue Potential, Weather Conditions to Cut U.S. Spring Wheat Area

By Claire Hutchins, USW Market Analyst (Revised April 5, 2019) According to the March 29 USDA Prospective Plantings report, U.S. total spring-planted wheat area will fall to an estimated 14.2 million acres (5.75 million hectares), 7% below 2018/19, if realized. The estimate includes 12.4 million acres of hard red spring (HRS), down 2% from last […]

High-Grade, High-Protein 2018 HRS Crop Offers Many Positives End-Use Traits

Growing conditions over most of the U.S. hard red spring (HRS) wheat production area helped produce a 2018 crop with many positive features for buyers. There is greater supply of high-grade HRS with above average protein levels and very good dough and bake qualities. In general, many quality features are balanced across the region with […]

Annual Spring Wheat Tour Sees Improvement from 2017 Drought Impact

By Amanda J. Spoo, USW Assistant Director of Communications This week, the Wheat Quality Council hosted its annual hard red spring (HRS) and durum crop tour. Participants spent three days mainly in North Dakota surveying this year’s crop and estimating yield. The tour, which surveyed a total of 342 fields, estimated weighted average HRS yield […]

Lower U.S. Wheat Futures: An Anomaly and Excellent Opportunity

By Stephanie Bryant-Erdmann, USW Market Analyst   There is an old saying: “When there’s blood on the streets, buy property.” Given recent price movements, that could easily be changed to: “When trade policies are in the news, buy wheat.”   Since the steel and aluminum tariffs went into full effect for major U.S. wheat customers, […]

USW Harvest Reports Now Posting Every Friday

Generally cool spring conditions delayed the start of the 2018/19 U.S. winter wheat harvest, but the combines are now in the fields and U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) published a preliminary Harvest Report on May 25. USW Harvest Reports are published every Friday afternoon, Eastern Daylight Time, throughout the season with updates and comments on harvest […]

Even with Lower HRW Outlook, U.S. Wheat Production Called Up for 2018/19

By Stephanie Bryant-Erdmann, USW Market Analyst With the small, stressed hard red winter (HRW) wheat crop getting the lion’s share of attention, it was an initial surprise to read in USDA’s May World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) that U.S. wheat production is expected to increase to 49.6 million metric tons (MMT) in 2018/19. […]

As Always, Weather Is the Wildcard for U.S. Wheat Planting and Production

By Stephanie Bryant-Erdmann, USW Market Analyst According to the March 29 USDA Prospective Plantings report, U.S. total spring-planted area will jump to an estimated 14.1 million acres (5.71 million hectares), 12 percent above 2017/18, if realized. The estimate includes 12.1 million acres (4.90 million hectares) of hard red spring (HRS), up 17 percent from 2017, if realized. […]