WASHINGTON — The National Agricultural Statistics Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated wheat stocks held in all positions in the United States on Dec. 1, 2015, at 1,738,367,000 bus, up 208,737,000 bus, or 14%, from 1,529,630,000 bus in 2014. It comprised the largest Dec. 1 wheat inventory since 2010.
The Dec. 1 wheat inventory was larger than expected by the trade as both seed use and feed and residual use of wheat during the second quarter of the 2015-16 crop year were lower than earlier forecast. The U.S.D.A. estimated wheat disappearance in September-November 2015 at 358,722,000 bus, down 18,868,000 bus, or 5%, from 377,590,000 bus in the same period of 2014. Wheat disappearance during the first six months of 2015-16 (June-November) was estimated at 1,065,779,000 bus, down 21,184,000 bus, or 2%, from 1,086,963,000 bus a year earlier.
Wheat stocks held on farms on Dec. 1, 2015, totaled 503,450,000 bus, up 30,650,000 bus, or 6%, from 472,800,000 bus in 2014. Wheat stocks in commercial hands on Dec. 1 totaled 1,234,917,000 bus, up 178,087,000 bus, or 17%, from 1,056,830,000 bus in 2014. On-farm wheat stocks accounted for 29% of the nation’s wheat inventory compared with 31% a year earlier.
The largest regional inventory was held in the hard red winter wheat states of the Southwest, including Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado and Nebraska. Dec. 1, 2015, wheat stocks in the Southwest totaled 614,609,000 bus, up 170,541,000 bus, or 38%, from 444,068,000 bus in 2014. Wheat disappearance in the Southwest in the crop year’s second quarter was 103,493,000 bus, up 7% from 96,780,000 bus in September-November 2014. June-November 2105 wheat disappearance was estimated at 278,549,000 bus, down 3% from 288,169,000 bus in 2014. Stocks held on farms totaled 41,900,000 bus, or 7% of the region’s total inventory.
The hard red spring wheat states of the Upper Midwest — North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Minnesota — held the second-largest Dec. 1 wheat inventory at 581,856,000 bus, which was up 45,090,000 bus, or 8%, from 2014. Wheat stocks held on farms were estimated at 395,000,000 bus, which accounted for 68% of the region’s Dec. 1 total stocks and 33% of all wheat stocks held on farms in the United States.
September-November 2015 wheat disappearance in the Upper Midwest was estimated at 127,698,000 bus, down 13,131,000 bus, or 9%, from 140,829,000 bus in 2014. June-November wheat disappearance in the region was estimated at 398,925,000 bus, up 8,086,000 bus, or 2%, from 390,839,000 bus in the first six months of 2014-15.
The Dec. 1, 2015, wheat inventory in the key soft red winter wheat region of the Central states — Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan — was estimated at 167,303,000 bus, down 8,607,000 bus, or 5%, from 175,910,000 bus in 2014. On-farm stocks estimated at 15,050,000 bus accounted for 9% of the region’s wheat inventory. On-farm stocks accounted for 7% of the Central states’ Dec. 1 wheat inventory in 2014.
Wheat disappearance in the Central states during the second quarter of the 2015-16 crop year was estimated at 33,635,000 bus, up 3,913,000 bus, or 13%, from 29,722,000 bus in September-November 2014. June-November wheat disappearance was estimated at 87,008,000 bus, down 3,551,000 bus, or 4%, from 90,559,000 bus in the same period in 2014.
Dec. 1 wheat stocks in the white wheat region of the Pacific Northwest — Washington, Oregon and Idaho — were estimated at 184,788,000 bus, up 15,624,000 bus, or 9%, from 169,164,000 bus in 2014. On-farm stocks estimated at 33,200,000 bus accounted for 18% of the region’s wheat inventory.
Wheat disappearance in the Pacific Northwest in September-November 2015 was estimated at 40,506,000 bus, down 32,861,000 bus, or 45%, from 73,367,000 bus in 2014. Wheat disappearance in the first half of the 2015-16 crop year was estimated at 122,597,000 bus, down 5,946,000 bus, or 5%, from 128,543,000 bus in 2014-15.
Durum stocks held in all positions on Dec. 1 totaled 60,510,000 bus, up 16,463,000 bus, or 37%, from 44,047,000 bus in 2014. Dec. 1 on-farm stocks were estimated at 35,700,000 bus, or 59% of the total inventory.
Durum disappearance in September-November 2015 was estimated at 13,536,000 bus, down 238,000 bus, or 2%, from 13,774,000 bus in 2014. Disappearance in June-November 2015 was estimated at 47,630,000 bus, up 16,097,000 bus, or 51%, from 31,533,000 bus in 2014.
