July 10, 2009

Missouri Wheat Production Down 4 Percent

(COLUMBIA, MO) – “As wheat harvest neared completion, producers were enjoying an average wheat yield despite the extremely wet spring and harvest season,” said Gene Danekas, Director, Missouri Agricultural Statistics, “Production is down dramatically as acreage harvested dropped nearly 40 percent from the 2008 crop.” Winter wheat production in Missouri is forecast at 36.7 million bushels, based on conditions as of July 1, 2009, down 4 percent from the June 1 forecast. This would be 34 percent below the 2008 crop and 3 percent below 2 years ago. Estimated acreage for harvest, at 720,000 acres, is down 30,000 acres from June 1 and 440,000 acres less than the 1,160,000 acres harvested in 2008. As of July 1, the average yield is forecast at 51 bushels per acre, unchanged from last month and 3.0 bushels per acre over last year’s average.

U.S. Winter Wheat Production Up 2 Percent

Winter wheat production is forecast at 1.52 billion bushels, up 2 percent from last month but down 18 percent from 2008. The U.S. yield is forecast at 43.8 bushels per acre, down 0.1 bushel from last month and down 3.4 bushels from last year. The area expected to be harvested for grain totals 34.8 million acres, unchanged from the Acreage report released on June 30, 2009 but down 12 percent from last year.

Hard Red Winter, at 903 million bushels, is up 4 percent from a month ago. Soft Red Winter, at 414 million bushels, is down slightly from the last forecast. White Winter is down slightly from last month and now totals 208 million bushels. Of this total, 22.4 million bushels are Hard White and 186 million bushels are Soft White.