Milling & Baking News - October 5, 2021 - 34

TUES | 10 05 202 1
Winter wheat seeding advances
as corn, soybeans are cut, binned
KANSAS CITY - With the weather-prolonged
hard red winter wheat harvest
completed and smaller spring wheat and
durum crops also in bins, attention has
turned to seeding the 2022 winter wheat
crop and the advancing fall crop harvest.
The hard red winter wheat harvest was,
for all intents and purposes, completed
before the calendar flipped to September.
Oklahoma and Texas had good yields
and mostly good quality measurements,
though protein content was tamped
down somewhat by high yields. As the
harvest moved into the northern Plains,
higher protein content partly offset
lower proteins from the southern Plains,
but " there definitely are quality issues to
navigate that will make it an interesting
year for wheat buyers, "
Mr. Gilpin said.
Harvests of the
drought-plagued hard
red spring and durum
wheat crops in the
US northern Plains
wrapped about a month
after the hard red
winter crop was fully
binned.
" Due to drought,
we saw a lot of areas
where producers had
below-average yields,
some in the single digits, "
said Erica Olson,
market development
and research manager
with the North Dakota
That was later than is typical, largely due
to cooler temperatures, high humidity
and moisture content.
" It was not a traditional harvest, " said
Justin Gilpin, chief executive officer
of Kansas Wheat. " Every farmer will
tell you it was an exhausting harvest
because it took so long to get wheat out of
the fields. "
Crews in a typical hard red winter
wheat harvest often work 10- to 12-hour
days. Temperatures may range up to or
even over 100 F with south winds blowing
about 20 miles per hour. This year, temperatures
were lower, and cloud cover
was common. Crews had lengthy wait
times in the mornings while fields dried
down and frequently had to shut down
early as humidity rose.
But when it was all cut and binned, the
southern Plains wheat crop in Kansas,
34 MILLING & BAKING NEWS
Wheat Commission. " Some producers
also abandoned their fields for feed or
insurance purposes. At the same time,
some producers had fields turn out better
than expected, not bin-busters by any
means, but close to average and a few
areas above average. "
Meanwhile, US producers were making
good progress harvesting row crops
such as corn, soybeans, sorghum and
sunflowers.
The US Department of Agriculture said
the 2021 corn crop in the 18 principal production
states was 18% harvested by Sept.
26, ahead of 14% a year earlier and 15% as
the recent five-year average for the date.
The corn harvest was furthest along
in Texas at 83% completed (69% as the
average for the date), followed by North
Carolina at 77% (80%). Aside from those
leading states, the most harvest progress
had been made in the Mid-South region,
where farmers had collected 43% of the
Tennessee corn crop (well behind 62% as
the average for the date) and 39% of the
Kentucky corn crop (52%).
By contrast, corn producers across the
central Plains and into the Central states
were harvesting the crop at or ahead of
the typical pace. Corn harvest completion
by Sept. 26 was 16% in Colorado (7% as
the average), 36% in Kansas (30%), 34% in
Missouri (34%), 21% in Illinois (18%), 15% in
Indiana (13%) and 6% in Ohio (6%).
The corn harvest had moved as far
north as Wisconsin and Michigan by
Sept. 26, the USDA said, with completion
rates in most other states still in the single
digits and ahead of the average pace. Early
on, two top production states also were
ahead of normal: Iowa at 9% versus 6% as
the average for the date, and Nebraska at
13% compared with 10% as the average.
The 2021 US soybean crop was being
harvested at a rapid clip, jumping to 16%
harvested by Sept. 26 from 6% a week earlier,
behind 18% a year earlier, but ahead
of 13% as the recent five-year average for
the date. In the major production states,
harvest completion by that date was 26%
in North Dakota (16% as average), 30% in
Minnesota (15%), 17% in South Dakota (13%),
18% in Iowa (11%), 17% in Nebraska (15%), 4%
in Kansas (5%), 25% in Arkansas (26%), 10%
in Illinois (11%), 13% in Indiana (12%), 5% in
Ohio (8%), 11% in Wisconsin (5%) and 12% in
Michigan (7%).
Dry conditions in September that
afforded a strong pace for collection of
row crops also depleted soil moisture supplies
just as some farmers shifted to seeding
next year's winter wheat crop. Rainy
forecasts last week heartened growers
anxious about moisture deficits.
Seeding completion by Sept. 26 in
hard red winter wheat country was 27%
in Kansas, 57% in Colorado, 28% in Oklahoma,
37% in Texas, 61% in Nebraska, 58%
in South Dakota and 42% in Montana, the
USDA said. The pace of soft winter wheat
seeding was faster in states farthest east.
Seeding by Sept. 26 was 1% completed in
Missouri (4% as the 2016-20 average for
the date), 2% in Illinois (4%), 11% in Indiana
(8%), 5% in Ohio (10%) and 17% in Michigan
(18%), the USDA said. MBN
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Milling & Baking News - October 5, 2021

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