Sharp Downturn For Missouri Wheat Harvest

Fears of weather conditions impacting wheat conditions came to fruition last week with the release of USDA’s Small Grains Summary for the previous growing season.  The report showed U.S. wheat production totaling 1.65 billion bushels, a slight increase from last year’s total.  That was down 133 million bushels from USDA’s forecast in the August Crop Production report, on lower than expected yield.  Still, yield for this year’s crop remained ahead of last year’s total at 46.5 bushels per acre, and harvested area was down four percent at 35.48 million acres.

The downturn was especially pronounced in Missouri, where production totaled just 24.6 million bushels, down 23 percent from a year ago.  August’s report had Missouri on track for a 36-percent jump in winter wheat at 43.56 million bushels.  Planted acreage was revised down 21 percent from the spring’s planting report, with just 630,000 acres planted.  In August, USDA had projected harvested acreage of 660,000 acres.  That naturally was revised lower to 410,000 acres, 80,000 lower than a year ago.  Yield was also lower than initially forecast, down five bushels from a year ago at 60, when August’s forecast called for an increase to 66 bushels per acre.

Missouri’s oat production went in the opposite direction of the national trend, as the state’s haul was less than half what it was a year ago.  416,000 bushels of the grain were harvested this season from only 8,000 acres.  Last year, 900,000 bushels were harvested from 15,000 acres.  Yield was down eight bushels per acre from a year ago at 52.  U.S. oat production was up 45 percent at 57.7 million bushels.