Washington winter wheat acres steady; wheat stocks increase

Washington winter wheat acres steady; wheat stocks increase

Washington Ag Today January 13, 2010 The first government estimate of winter wheat acreage planted in Washington state last fall is out. As Linda Simpson with the Washington Bureau of the National Agricultural Statistics Service reports, it’s an acreage repeat.

Simpson: “USDA’s winter wheat seedings report released January 12th indicated Washington winter wheat growers planted one-million 700-thousand acres of winter wheat last fall for harvest in 2010. This total is unchanged from the total that was planted in the fall of 2008.”

USDA says that nationally winter wheat planted acres are down 14 percent from the previous year primarily due to harvest and planting delays in the hard red and soft red winter wheat regions. USDA says the 37.1 million acres farmers seeded is the lowest since 1913.

The USDA also issued a Quarterly Grain Stocks report yesterday and Simpson has details on that.

Simpson: “Washington’s wheat stocks in all positions were 8% above last December, while barley stocks in all positions last December were almost 40% below the previous December.”

Nationally wheat stocks were up 24 percent from December of 2008.

Simpson reports December stocks nationally for pulse crops were mostly higher.

Simpson: “Dry edible pea stocks in the U.S. were up 55% from last year. Lentil stocks were up 60%. Austrian winter peas were up 80% while chickpea stocks were down 18%.”

The next major USDA report will be in March on what acreages of spring crops farmers say they intend to plant.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network.

?

?

?

?

Previous ReportEcology proposes change to pesticide permit for irrigation districts; another drill meeting
Next ReportLegislative Resolution on AgJobs could be timely