Dry Weather and Freezing Temperatures Challenge Hard Red Winter Wheat Crop
By Claire Hutchins, USW Market Analyst The condition of the U.S. hard red winter (HRW) wheat crop is not improving. Farmers – and the markets – are concerned about the threats to yield potential from wide-spread April freezes and increasing dryness across a significant portion of the Central and Southern Great Plains. USDA’s most recent […]
USDA Predicts Slight Decline in U.S. Spring Wheat Planted Area
By Claire Hutchins, USW Market Analyst According to the March 31 USDA Prospective Plantings report, U.S. total spring-planted wheat area is expected to fall to 12.6 million acres (5.1 million hectares), down 1 percent from 2019/20, if realized. This estimate includes 11.9 million acres (4.82 million hectares) of hard red spring (HRS), down slightly from […]
The Story Behind Dependable People, Reliable Wheat
Over the years, U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) has described the value of U.S. wheat to overseas buyers, millers and wheat food processors in many ways. We have called it “the world’s most reliable choice.” We have suggested it is “the wheat you want from producers you can depend on.” And we have offered it as […]
The 2019 Soft White Crop Shines Again
Pacific Northwest (PNW) farmers produced another fine soft white wheat (SW) and white club (WC) crop with good test weight and very acceptable finished product characteristics for 2019. Adequate soil moisture at planting and throughout the growing season did contribute to higher moisture and protein content compared to 2018 but protein remained lower than the […]
USW Video Team Focuses on Supply Chain and Soft White Wheat Seeding in Oregon
Every year, several trade delegations of overseas buyers, millers, bakers and government officials visit the Pacific Northwest (PNW). Its proximity to many stops along the wheat supply chain allows customers to witness the reliability and transparency of the U.S. grain marketing system firsthand. This includes Padget Ranches, on the arid Columbia Plateau above the John […]
Production Update: USDA Confirms High U.S. Wheat Yields Offset Reduced Planted Area
By Claire Hutchins, USW Market Analyst On Sept. 30, USDA released its Small Grains Summary noting that 2019/20 U.S. wheat production increased to 53.3 million metric tons (MMT), up 4 percent from last year due to significant improvements in yield despite lower planted area. While this is still 2 percent below the 5-year average of […]
USW Video Team Records the Hope of Winter Wheat Seeding in Oklahoma
“Seeding is an exciting time – and it can be stressful, too, because you are anxious to get the seed in the ground,” said Okarche, Okla., wheat farmer Michael Peters. “There are a lot of decisions to be made and sometimes the weather makes you wonder if you made the right choices. But once you […]
USW Video Team Travels in North Dakota to Capture Spring Wheat Harvest
North Dakota’s farm families have a remarkable choice of crops to grow. Canola, dry edible peas, flaxseed, oats, barley, sunflowers and even soybeans are all options. Yet most farmers in North Dakota’s north central “Drift Prairie” would identify themselves first as wheat growers — hard red spring (HRS) wheat growers to be specific. Philip and […]
Unfavorable Weather Delays U.S. Spring Wheat Harvest
By Claire Hutchins, USW Market Analyst Though early April is the ideal planting window for U. S. hard red spring (HRS) wheat, saturated fields and cold soil temperatures kept many farmers out of their fields until late May or early June this year. The same precipitation and cool temperatures that delayed planting boosted early HRS […]
USW Takes its Video Team to Washington’s Iconic Palouse Region
Sculpted by the cataclysmic Missoula floods millions of years ago at the end of the last ice age, the rolling, fertile hills of the Palouse region in the Pacific Northwest is one of the most distinct agricultural landscapes in the United States. In Washington’s Whitman County—the largest U.S. wheat producing county—Gary Bailey farms both winter […]