This might be the year to reverse a long-term U.S. wheat acreage trend.
USDA says wheat growers have gradually reduced plantings over the last century, including a decline of about a million acres this past year, but the Department’s Chief Economist, Seth Meyer, says there may be a bit of a turnaround in store for this year.
“In ’22 we were just a little under 46 million acres and you know, an expectation that with solid pricing obviously, we’ll get a little bit of a rebound. So, the first number we put out for 2023 was 47.5 million acres, so up a little under 2 million acres year-over-year.”
Meyer says the war in Ukraine is keeping wheat prices high. The last USDA forecast shows an all-wheat average price of $9.10 per bushel, up $1.50 from this marketing year.
