Missouri Farmers Set To Wave More Wheat This Summer

Wheat acres across Missouri have risen by a double-digit percentage rate for the second straight year.  Last week’s Winter Wheat Seedings report from USDA indicates that about 880,000 acres of Missouri wheat were planted this past fall, a jump of 38 percent.  It’s also 400,000 acres more than what was planted two years ago.  Winter wheat planting nationwide is up two percent at close to 34.4 million acres, including 7.5 million in neighboring Kansas.

Missouri’s larger wheat harvest last summer has mostly made its way to the elevator, with the total on hand as of December 1st at 20.2 million bushels.  That’s an almost 25-percent increase compared to the previous year.  17.4 million bushels were off-farm, while 2.75 million remained on-farm.  Disappearance from Missouri during the fall totaled 8.45 million bushels, slightly better than a year ago.  Nationwide wheat stocks were down 18 percent from the previous year at 1.39 billion bushels.  The fall usage and export rate was down 16 percent at 384 million bushels.