In North America, the spring wheat harvest is far from over everywhere. Both in several northern states of the United States and in some Canadian provinces, much grain still has to be harvested. Persistent wet weather affects quality.
Rainfall and heavy dew nights affect the quality of spring wheat and hard durum wheat. This is the case in both the United States and Canada. In Saskatchewan and Alberta, 70% of all wheat still has to be threshed, according to Canadian market experts.
Quality down
The plots are now subject to shooting, they report. That is doubly unlucky, because the wheat price is relatively low for arable farmers. If this is linked to the disappointing quality, the balance will be even lower. Growers are being cut on the wheat they supply because of quality issues.
North Dakota is the largest producer of spring wheat in the United States. By mid-September, almost 75% of the harvest was in there, but an estimated 2,34 million tons still need to be harvested. Due to the bad weather, there is an increasing demand for high-quality (durum) wheat.
Canadian harvest is slow
According to government data, arable farmers in Saskatchewan get 13% of their wheat crop. In total, 25% of the crops have been harvested, where 50% is the average. The analysts estimate that approximately 50% of the wheat volume must be sold as animal feed and is not suitable for making pasta.
Not only wheat growers are lagging behind with their harvest. In the American Cornbelt, the maize harvest is slowly getting under way. Due to the late spring, this is about 2 weeks later than average. Some farmers even expect to thresh their soy first. Wheat was also sown late in Canada after a very cold and wet spring.