Milling & Baking News - April 23, 2019 - 10

Business

Spring wheat planting progresses
slowly across Upper Midwest
Continued from Page 1

fields too wet to begin fieldwork, although producers in the west-central
and northern parts of the state are drier
and closer to planting, Ms. Olson said.
Other areas still need a few weeks of
sun and dry weather. Producers overall were monitoring the situation with
caution rather than distress.
"They're becoming aware that some
years even if they plant late, they do
still get good yields," she said.
At the same time, Ms. Olson acknowledged as time passes in the
spring, the more some producers
may consider switching to some
later-season crops. Such alternative

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fieldwork April 28 in the top-producing spring wheat state. While behind
the average, the slow start isn't a complete anomaly.
"If you look at the Crop Progress
report, last year at this time we had
nothing in the ground; the bulk of it
was planted in May, and we ended up
having a very good production year,"
said Erica Olson, market development
and research manager with the North
Dakota Wheat Commission in Mandan, N.D.
"This is most definitely not the
worst year," Ms. Olson said. "We had

Spring wheat planting overall was 2% completed by April 14.

2009, which was a very wet year, 2011,
2013, and some of those years, fields
just didn't get planted, period."
While the late start to seeding
doesn't necessarily portend a poor
crop year, the Upper Midwest/northern Plains is dealing with the aftermath of historic flooding rated the
third-worst for the region after 1993
and 1952. The 2019 floods were early
and widespread, a product of heavy
rainfall, rapidly warming temperatures that sped snow melt, and frozen
or saturated soils that increased runoff
and, to a lesser degree, ice jams.
In the weeks following the initial
flood surge, cool nighttime temperatures tended to re-freeze remaining
snow cover, allowing a more controlled melt and easing concerns.
However, a snowstorm in the second
week of April dropped more spring
snow than any year in recent memory
and was followed within days by a
return to normal spring temperatures.
That has left most North Dakota
10 / April 23, 2019

Milling & Baking News

seeding may include sunflower, safflower, canola and a variety of pulses
and specialty crops. But "soybeans
are the natural choice for a switch to
a later-planted crop," Ms. Olson said.
"(North Dakota) corn acres are already
predicted to be quite a bit higher, so I
don't know that there will be a big additional shift into that."
Timely drying of fields in the Red
River Valley straddling the border between North Dakota and Minnesota
will be crucial to the sugar beet industry. It's the largest sugar beet-growing
region in the country. U.S. sugar beet
planting by April 14 was 8% completed, equal to the year-ago progress but
behind 16% as the five-year average
for the date. Sugar beet planting was
40% completed in Idaho (41% as the
average) and 5% in Michigan (2%) but
had yet to begin in Minnesota (14%) or
North Dakota (9%).
Outside of the Upper Midwest, corn
planting was in its early stages. Corn
seeding in the 18 major states as of

April 14 was 3%, on par with 2018 and
just two percentage points behind the
recent five-year average. No corn had
been planted in the largest producing
states of Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska or the Dakotas. Corn planting
was 1% completed in Indiana (1% as
the five-year average for the date), 6%
in Kansas (14%), 8% in Kentucky (8%),
6% in Missouri (15%), 18% in North
Carolina (28%), 16% in Tennessee
(14%) and 57% in Texas (54%).
While growers are now pondering
crop options for their still-wet fields,
time remains for the ground to dry out
and allow the intended acreage to be
seeded as projected. The timeline for
such decisions varies by individual
producers.
"Some have a hard, set date in their
mind, and if they're not in the fields
by then, they might switch," Ms. Olson said. "Others go with the flow and
see how things progress.
"It'll really depend on what May
looks like. If May ends up being a
warm, dry month, they can get things
planted fairly fast. If we receive a
bunch more moisture and things aren't
getting done in May, then they're going
to have to switch to some later crops."
Other crop planting progress by
April 14 was generally comparable to
2018 but behind the 2014-18 average.
Rice planting in the six major states
was 26% completed (30% in 2018, 35%
as the five-year average). Oats planting in the nine major states was 30%
completed (29%, 40%). Cotton planting in the 15 major states was 7% completed (8% a year ago, 7% as the fiveyear average). And barley planting in
the five major states was 8% completed (7%, 19%).
Sorghum planting in the six major
states was 16% completed (20% a year
earlier, 19% as the five-year average).
The U.S.D.A.'s Feed Outlook report
for April indicated producers intend
to reduce the area planted to sorghum by 10% in 2019, with all states
except Colorado reducing acreage. If
realized, that would be the lowest sorghum acreage on record. That's largely
due to the ongoing trade dispute with
China, which has sharply curtailed the
export market for sorghum.
Ultimately, weather conditions
and precipitation levels over the
next month will dictate progress or
switched acreage.
"With technology, farmers can get
a lot done in a little amount of time,"
Ms. Olson said. "You'll have some that
will go 24 hours a day if they really get
in a pinch." MBN
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Milling & Baking News - April 23, 2019

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