01/16/07 Flipping winter wheat to corn

Farm and Ranch January 16, 2007 The demand for corn for ethanol which has created high corn prices is expected to create some major cropping changes this spring. Estimates on additional corn acres needed in 2007 range from six million to eight million. Soybeans will lose acres and spring wheat is expected to lose to corn too. But what about tearing out winter wheat that's already in the ground ? There is talk in the Midwest of some of that happening. Smith: "I think it is a realistic scenario especially if they are not real happy with the wheat stand." That is Dennis Smith of Archer Financial Services. Smith says wheat had its big run last fall and now its corn's turn. Smith: "And there is a possibility of some acres that's currently in wheat being flipped and moved right into corn. Difficult to say. What did USDA say, you've got eight million acres of soft red wheat? You know you can't look for a very large percentage of that, in fact you have to look for an extremely small percentage of that being flipped over. So that is one possibility. It would take a pretty sharp rally in corn. But that is what we are expecting. It is something to consider and watch." The cornbelt's soft red winter wheat is of course a competitor in the marketplace to soft white wheat from the Pacific Northwest. Soft red planted acreage for this year is up 13 percent while white wheat is up only two percent. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network