From The Fields

POOCH, from pg. 3 seems 4-year-old Brady may also have future plans for farming. Pooch shared Brady came with to bring him dinner earlier in the week. He told his son, “Thanks for lunch, Cowboy.” Brady responded, “Dad, I’m not a cowboy. I’m a farmer.”

Pooch will soon be prepping hay equipment as he expects to start haying the first week of June. Looking ahead, he stated because there’s not a lot of subsoil moisture, “We will be dependent on timely rains.” v

HAGEN, from pg. 3

It’s common for farmers to keep target dates in mind. For Hagen’s father, Gordon, finishing planting prior to May 20 is always a goal as it’s his birthday. Mission accomplished this year! Hagen unfortunately didn’t have such luck on his own May 11 birthday.

Following birthday celebrations, Hagen has scheduled to have painting completed on a building. He’ll also be spraying for weeds. He anticipated starting on corn by the end of next week.

In the middle of all this good-newsis-really-bad-news data for U.S. corn and soybeans farmers, American wheat farmers couldn’t tell if their section of the WASDE was a pat on the back or a kick in the pants (a distance, the all-but-sainted former USDA chief Earl Butz liked to remind audiences, “is only 18 inches apart.”)

The headline to the wheat forecast, Bloomberg blared, was that “America’s wheat fields have become so plagued by drought that farmers are now poised to abandon crops at the highest rate in more than a century.”

In fact, the news service went on, “Producers are expected to harvest about 67 percent of their planted acres… (that) if realized would be the lowest ratio since 1917…”

So, the shorter U.S. crop means taller U.S. prices, right?

Bloomberg said that’s a rock solid, ah, well… maybe: The acreage abandonment “to lower levels than analysts were expecting… could keep domestic prices elevated, even with rival producers such as Canada and Argentina likely to boost output.”

USDA’s wheat price projection, however, did not agree. Indeed, govern-

Which just goes to show the world why America’s farmers continue their more than a generation-long love/hate relationship with wheat: they just can’t catch a break with it.

For example, strong 2022 prices — buoyed by both lower U.S. acres and the Ukrainian/Russia war — encouraged hesitant growers to sow 10 percent more wheat this marketing year. Last summer’s drought, however, continued into winter, then spring, to deliver (holy cow!) record acreage abandonment, normally a booster rocket for prices.

But, no, Chicago July wheat futures continue their sleepy, slow slide. On Dec. 30 July futures closed at $8.03. By mid-May, though, the July contract had slipped below $6.50 per bushel and now has the grease to slide more.

Given 2023’s soaring productionsinking price forecast, maybe Old Earl the Pearl had it right with his back patting-back side kicking wisecrack.

The Farm and Food File is published weekly through the United States and Canada. Past columns, events and contact information are posted at www. farmandfoodfile.com. v