Wheat Industry News
News and Information from Around the World Wheat Industry
Speaking of Wheat
“The [wheat] market is very much a balance of what’s going on all around the world. You really have to have a higher-level view of what production is like in the Black Sea, Australia or South America. There’s more complication, there’s more moving pieces. … Every three or four months, somebody’s harvesting another crop of wheat. The puzzle’s constantly changing and you have to shift and fit it into the next variable as it comes down the road.” – Brian Liedl (photo above), Director of Merchandising, United Grain Corp, from an article in Capital Press.
Wheat Versus Bread Prices
At U.S. Wheat Associates (USW), we try to present the true effect of wheat and flour prices on end use products. We were pleased to see a recent, accurate assessment of a potential increase in French wheat prices given the weather-limited crop there in 2024. Thierry Pouch, chief economist of the French Chamber of Agriculture was quoted in an article in Politico EU saying, “The price of wheat and flour is only a small part of the total price of a baguette. For the moment, we don’t see large-scale movement in prices for consumers.” Read more here.
Oklahoma State University (OSU) to Create New Home for Wheat Breeding
OSU is creating a new Agronomy Discovery Center through upgrades to the existing Agronomy Research Station, home to one of the world’s top wheat breeding programs. The project received gifts of $5 million from Oklahoma Genetics Inc. and $1 million from USW member Oklahoma Wheat Commission. The two lead donations announced Aug. 9 will help launch a fundraising initiative as part of a multiphase upgrade process. Early priorities include constructing a new headhouse and 12 research greenhouses to be the birthplace of OSU’s new wheat lines. “Investments like this do not merely produce wheat for today; they ensure a better breed of Oklahoma wheat for tomorrow,” said OSU Regents professor and wheat geneticist Dr. Brett Carver. Read more here.
Representatives from the OSU Foundation, Oklahoma Genetics Inc. and the Oklahoma Wheat Commission join Dr. Kayse Shrum, OSU president (second from left), and Dr. Jayson Lusk, vice president and dean of OSU Agriculture (far right) in launching the OSU Agronomy Discovery Center’s new fundraising initiative. Also participating were USW Director Don Schieber (center), Oklahoma Wheat Commission Executive Director Mike Schulte, and former executive director of Plains Grains Mark Hodges. Credit: ©Mitchell Alcala – OSU Agriculture.
Also at OSU…
USW offers best wishes to Oklahoma State University’s Kim Anderson who retired July 31 after 42 years providing grain marketing advice in person and through U.S. farm and business media to farmers. In a High Plains Journal article, Anderson said his views of grain marketing have evolved, with the major differences being price seasonality, more data and that farmers are marketing on a more global level than they were 40 years ago. Read more here.
Largest SRW State Seeking Checkoff
Illinois produces more soft red winter (SRW) than any other U.S. state. Members of the Illinois Wheat Association (IWA) are now circulating petitions to institute a wheat checkoff in the state, Brownfield News reports. Checkoffs approved by farmers and operated under state statutes establish wheat commissions that manage funds collected when wheat is first sold. Don Guinnip, with IWA, who farms in Marshall & Clark County, told Brownfield, “We need to be promoting wheat.” The petitions lead to a hearing with the state ag department and, IWA hopes, to a farmer referendum in 2025. Funding from 17 state wheat commission members of USW allows the organization to apply for export market development program funding. Read more here.
USDA Looks at Specific Price Increase Effects on Planted Acreage
USDA’s Economic Research Service recently released a study that examined the area planted for major U.S. row crops. The research went a step beyond previous studies by determining the degree by which a price increase or decrease would result in a change in planted acreage. Researchers determined that for every 1-percent increase in corn prices, corn acreage planted increases by 0.210 percent and soybean acreage planted declines by 0.115 percent. In 2023, a hypothetical 1,000-acre farm planted 373 (37.3 percent of its total area) acres of corn, 329 (32.9 percent) acres of soybeans, 195 (19.5 percent) acres of wheat, 40 (4.0 percent) acres of cotton, and 10 to 30 acres each of sorghum, barley, oats, and rice. If the price of corn for the next growing season increased 10 percent ($0.50 per bushel), the farm will increase corn area planted by 7 acres and decrease soybean area by about 5 acres. The remaining area would go to lower wheat, sorghum, and cotton acreage. Conversely, a 10 percent ($1.30 per bushel) increase in the price of soybeans will result in a 4-acre decrease in corn area and a 6-acre increase in soybeans. Read about the USDA study here.
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