The price rally tied to the winter wheat frost earlier in April appeared to deflating as The Western Producer went to press April 23, but slow corn seeding supported the market.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s winter wheat crop assessment released on April 23 confirmed damage but held no surprise.
The good-to-excellent category dipped one percentage point to 54 percent. Analysts had expected a three to five percent drop in the top two categories. The fair category fell to 25 percent from 28 percent and the poor-to-very poor category increased to 21 percent from 17 percent the week before.
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In Kansas, the key winter wheat state, scouts say 29 percent of the crop was severely damaged.
Some of the most severely damaged wheat area might be reseeded to corn. The wheat area remaining has excellent moisture, which might help offset the production reductions caused by the frost.
Corn seeding proceeded at a slower pace than expected last week. Only 11 percent was in the ground as of April 22 compared to analysts’ expectations of 13 to 17 percent.
But forecasts showed drier weather on the way, supporting expectations that seeding would speed up.
