Wheat, corn still area’s top crops
Prices help keep wheat economic engine chugging
By Larry Meyer
Argus Observer
Wednesday, July 23, 2008 10:55 AM PDT
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| Corn in demand last year, is giving way to wheat, which has stronger prices and uses less water. |
ONTARIO — The data is not in for this year for comparison, but area agriculture experts agree a lot of wheat is in the ground this year pushing last year’s top crop — corn — out of the picture.
“We know a lot of wheat seed was sold,” Oregon State University Malheur Extension Service office Field Crop Specialist Steve Norberg said.
Norberg said wheat could be 2008’s top crop.
“We have been estimating a very large crop,” he said, adding some have suggested it is double last year’s. “We don’t have the data.”
Usually the acreage reports are out in July, Norberg said, but he said he has heard it may be August before they are published.
While wheat seems to be a crop of choice for many, corn still draws a large amount of interest from area agriculturists.
“Both corn and wheat are very strong right now,” Norberg said, with the current prices of corn below that of wheat.
Bids for soft white wheat, Tuesday, ranged from $7.95 per bushel to $8.15 in the futures market. Norberg calculated the corn market between one and two dollars lower, when converted to a per bushel price. He could remember when $3 per bushel was good for wheat, he said.
“It’s price, price, price,” Brad Brown a University of Idaho, agronomist, said about the increase in wheat acreage.
“There is much more in Oregon and Idaho,” he said. The market was already high when the farmers were deciding to plant, Brown said, and another factor was the question about the availability of water. Wheat does not use water like corn and other crops do. However, he said Tuesday, early weather conditions will prevent yields from being as high as they could be.
Brown said it is still too early to make specific predictions about the wheat yields.
“But, it all depends on the harvest.”
Several things contribute to price increases, Norberg said. The two major ones are growing markets in India and China and poor crops in several countries, he said.
“There have been poor wheat crops in many different counties,” Norberg said. “Supplies have dropped sharply. The supply was extremely low.”
Norberg said he predicts wheat prices could remain high for at least a couple of years, as people and countries try to rebuild the supply back up.
