01/14/08 Small winter wheat acreage increase in Washington a surprise

Washington Ag January 14, 2008 The topic of conversation Friday at the Spokane office of the Washington Grain Alliance was the USDA's winter wheat seedings report. The report from the National Agricultural Statistics Service showed only a two percent increase in Washington winter wheat acres over last year, despite record high prices. Grain Alliance CEO Tom Mick was surprised. Mick: "The increase in acreage is only 30-thousand acres of winter wheat. So the big question now is what is going to happen with spring wheat. There was very little seed available this year which limited expansion and a lot of farmers just didn't want to upset their rotation because they suffer from it two or three years down the road. Nation wide I see winter wheat is up but most of that is with soft red winter. Hard red winter for example is actually down one percent for the acreage. I think soft white overall is up about four percent. So, I was a little surprised how little an increase there was in Washington but I am not surprised by the overall numbers." The 1.75 million acres of winter wheat planted in Washington for harvest in 2008 is actually five percent below the 2006 crop. I'm Bob Hoff.