Wheat prices saw strength last week, as worries about the 2021 crop continue to grow.
On Friday, USDA’s World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) showed lower wheat supplies. Prices retracted on Monday, as some areas of the Wheat Belt saw chances of moisture to start the week, but there are still concerns about planting spring wheat this year, a factor that could strain already tighter supplies.
“The fascinating thing about 2021 and wheat is in 2007, we ran out of wheat, but we had enough corn to offset it,” says Kevin Duling of KD Investors. “In 2012, we ran out of corn, but we had enough wheat to offset it. In 2021, we’re running record, not record tight, but close too tight on stocks to use on everything.”
Duling says as tighter supplies continues to be a story for the majority of commodities, it may be a factor in acreage.
“So, you’re not going to see those big dramatic acreage shifts,” says Duling. “You’re going to see people plant what works in rotation and what they think has the most potential. And so wheat is just going to take a backseat in the northern Plains.”
Bloomberg reported last week that spring wheat prices jumped to the highest in almost three weeks. USDA’s Crop Progress report showed two-thirds of the northern Plains spring wheat belt is expected to be too dry for seeds to germinate.
