U.S. winter wheat harvest begins

Jun 08, 2022

Farmers have harvested about 5 percent of the crop

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

U.S. farmers have started to harvest the 2021 winter wheat crop.

Farmers have harvested about 5 percent of the crop, the USDA’s Weekly Weather and Crop Bulletin said on June 5.

The USDA estimated farmers planted 34.4 million acres of winter wheat in 2021, meaning growers have harvested about 1,720,000 acres so far.

On a state level, farmers in Texas have harvested the most winter wheat.

Growers there have combined about 36 percent of the state’s winter wheat acres.

Aside from multiple states not reporting any winter wheat harvested, farmers in Missouri have harvested the least amount of wheat.

Growers in that state have harvested just 1 percent of their winter wheat, the USDA reports.

More than three quarters of the U.S. corn crop has emerged.

About 78 percent of the crop is up, the USDA’s June 5 report says. This is up from 61 percent last week.

U.S. producers intended to plant about 89.5 million acres in 2022.

That means about 69,810,000 acres of corn has emerged.

Corn in North Carolina is the furthest along.

About 98 percent of corn in that state is up. Conversely, corn in North Dakota is only 22 percent emerged.

And a little more than half of the U.S. soybean crop is emerged.

Around 56 percent of the soybean crop is up, the USDA reported. This is up from 39 percent last week.

Farmers intended to plant 91 million acres of soybeans, meaning about 50,960,000 acres of soybeans are up.

Soybeans in Louisiana are the furthest along, reporting 98 percent of soybeans emerged.

Soybeans in North Dakota, on the other hand, are only 4 percent emerged.

Video: Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

Northeast Wisconsin is a small corner of the world, but our weather is still affected by what happens across the globe.

That includes in the equatorial Pacific, where changes between El Niño and La Niña play a role in the weather here -- and boy, have there been some abrupt changes as of late.

El Niño and La Niña are the two phases of what is collectively known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO for short. These are the swings back and forth from unusually warm to unusually cold sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator.

Since this past September, we have been in a weak La Niña, which means water temperatures near the Eastern Pacific equator have been cooler than usual. That's where we're at right now.

Even last fall, the long-term outlook suggested a return to neutral conditions by spring and potentially El Niño conditions by summer.

But there are some signs this may be happening faster than usual, which could accelerate the onset of El Niño.

Over the last few weeks, unusually strong bursts of westerly winds farther west in the Pacific -- where sea surface temperatures are warmer than average -- have been observed. There is a chance that this could accelerate the warming of those eastern Pacific waters and potentially push us into El Niño sooner than usual.

If we do enter El Nino by spring -- which we'll define as the period of March, April and May -- there are some long-term correlations with our weather here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Looking at a map of anomalously warm weather, most of the upper Great Lakes doesn't show a strong correlation, but in general, the northern tiers of the United States do tend to lean to that direction.

The stronger correlation is with precipitation. El Niño conditions in spring have historically come with a higher risk of very dry weather over that time frame, so this will definitely be a transition we'll have to watch closely as we move out of winter.