The sowing delay area of soft red winter wheat in the United States may be reduced by 30%

Due to bad weather and falling spot prices, American farmers are likely to reduce their soft red winter wheat acreage by 18 to 20 per cent this year. Last year, farmers planted about 8.3 million acres of soft red winter wheat, compared with a total area of 43.3 million acres.

The continued rainy weather in the Midwest this year has slowed the harvest of corn and soybeans in the United States, which in turn delayed the sowing of soft red winter wheat. Many farmers usually plant soft red winter wheat after soybean harvest.

Late sowing of wheat may lead to a decrease in yield per unit area, especially if winter wheat crops are affected by adverse weather. As a result, some farmers facing sowing delays have decided to give up planting wheat.

In Illinois, the sowing deadline for soft red winter wheat has passed, so many farmers may think that it is safer to apply for preventive sowing insurance than to grow wheat.

However, the sown area of hard red winter wheat may remain stable with the previous year. The planting conditions of hard red winter wheat have been good this year.

Analysts at JP Morgan estimate that the sown area of soft red winter wheat in the United States will be reduced by 1.5 million acres.