10/23/07 USDA economist sees some CRP going to wheat

Farm and Ranch October 23, 2007 If wheat prices stay high USDA chief economist Keith Collins thinks we'll see more acreage come out of the Conservation Reserve Program. Collins told the U.S. House Agriculture Committee last week that there are good reasons for some producers to take land out of the CRP. Collins: "Most of the land in the CRP is in wheat country. And the kind of wheat prices we are looking at right now, $8.50 a bushel for December delivery, which is extraordinary, I think clearly that kind of wheat price would encourage people who don't have extraordinarily environmentally sensitive land to exit the CRP and go back into wheat production. Now I don't expect the wheat price to stay at $8.50 but I think in this $5 to $6 range that is going to be very attractive for an awful lot of land that is in CRP." Collins' expectations for major commodity acreage next year is that we will see less corn and more wheat and soybeans. Collins: "Wheat and soybean prices are now much stronger relative to corn than they were a year ago. And with fertilizer prices at very high levels we expect many more soybean acres and fewer corn and cotton acres in 2008. These shifts will help replenish the tight grain supplies." But Collins still sees another year of strong commodity prices. His specific estimate of total wheat acres for 2008 is 64 million acres, an increase of 3.5 million from 2007. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.