USDA Winter Wheat Seedings

Jan 12, 2016

Winter wheat: Planted area for harvest in 2016 is estimated at 36.6 million acres, down 7 percent from 2015 and 14 percent below 2014. Seeding began in early September and remained at or behind the 5-year average seeding pace
through the middle of November when seeding was mostly complete.

Hard Red Winter (HRW) wheat seeded area is expected to be 26.5 million acres, ndown 9 percent from 2015. Planted acreage is down from last year across most of the growing region. The largest declines in planted acreage are estimated in the Great Plains States. Record low acreage was seeded in Nebraska.

Soft Red Winter (SRW) wheat seeded area is about 6.72 million acres, down 5 percent from last year. Acreage decreases from last year are estimated in most southern SRW growing States, while most of the States in the northern half of the region seeded more acres than in 2015. Record low acreage was seeded in New Jersey.

White Winter wheat seeded area totals nearly 3.43 million acres, up 1 percent from 2015. Planting in the Pacific Northwest got off to a normal start, but by the middle of October, progress was behind the 5-year average pace in Idaho and Washington. By November 9, seeding was virtually complete in the region.

Durum wheat: Seedings in Arizona and California for 2016 harvest are estimated at a combined 140,000 acres, down 33 percent from 2015 but 20 percent above 2014. No major problems in the development of the crop have been reported. Favorable planting conditions were reported in the San Joaquin Valley and Imperial Valley.

Source: USDA

Video: Root Exudates, Soil Biology, and How Plants Recruit Microbes | Field Talk Friday

Field Talk Friday | Dr. John Murphy | Root Exudates, Soil Biology, and How Plants Recruit Microbes

Most of us spend our time managing what we can see above ground—plant height, leaf color, stand counts, and yield potential. But the deeper you dig into agronomy, the more you realize that some of the most important processes driving crop performance are happening just millimeters below the surface.

In this episode of Field Talk Friday, Dr. John Murphy continues the soil biology series by diving into one of the most fascinating topics in modern agronomy: root exudates and the role they play in shaping the microbial world around plant roots.

Roots are not passive structures simply pulling nutrients out of the soil. They are active participants in the underground ecosystem. Plants constantly release compounds into the soil—sugars, amino acids, organic acids, and other molecules—that act as both energy sources and signals for soil microbes.