Wheat Down

The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service is reporting an overall 3 percent decrease in planted wheat acres across the Pacific Northwest for 2014. Why in the world, when you are in a wonderful wheat growing area and you are traditionally a wheat farmer, would you not plant wheat? Well there seems to be a pretty simple answer according to Idaho Wheat Commission Executive Director Blaine Jacobson. “Idaho growers are fortunate in that they’ve got a number of crop options — when prices are weaker in one segment, they’re able to shift to a more profitable crop. Growers are shifting to potatoes, hay and beans, all crops where prices are up.” Also according to NASS: Barley acres increased by 4.8 percent, from 630,000 acres to 660,000 acres in Idaho. Barley stocks were up in Idaho, totaling 28.7 million bushels from 27.7 million bushels in 2013.