Ohio’s acreage lowest on record as demand, prices fall

Spacious skies, check. Purple mountains, yes. Amber waves of grain, fewer and fewer. Those amber waves, which rustle and roll in a breeze, are acres of wheat, and unlike the sky and mountains, they are dwindling.

U.S. farmers will plant about 46 million acres of wheat this year, the fewest since national records were first kept in 1919.

Ohio is part of the trend: Its 470,000 acres planted with wheat this year are the fewest in state history and less than half what was planted just eight years ago. By comparison, Ohio farmers will plant a record high 5 million acres of soybeans this year.

“I’m growing 10 to 12 percent of what I usually do,” said Gary Davis, who grows corn, soybeans and wheat in Delaware County. “The economics just aren’t there.”

Wheat peaked at more than $10 a bushel in 2008, but for the past year, prices have hovered at or near 10-year lows.

Ohio’s wheat is a winter crop and is harvested in late spring, giving farmers enough time to grow soybeans on the same land, but even that isn’t profitable at today’s prices.

“People don’t want to be busy in the summer harvesting wheat if it isn’t profitable,” said Jon Miller, who farms more than 3,000 acres in Fairfield County. Miller planted about 400 acres of wheat this year, a typical amount for his family operation.

In Ohio, wheat is paired with soybeans to “double crop” the same

acreage and make a little more money, Miller said.

He sells his small wheat crop for straw, but the farmers who sell to grain elevators are looking at a soft market, so dropping wheat out of the rotation is an easy way to save money.

The crop was once the cornerstone of American agriculture, hence its prominent place in “America the Beautiful,” a song whose lyrics originally were a late19th century poem.

In Ohio, wheat acres topped 3 million in the late 19th century. One of wheat’s great advantages — adaptability to various climates and soils — is also a weakness, in a way. The U.S. dominates global production in corn and soybeans, but many countries harvest a

decent wheat crop. That leaves markets with a glut of the grain.

Unlike most of the corn and soybean crops, which can be used to feed animals, wheat is used for human consumption: breads, crackers, flour. Food trends, such as a decline in demand for processed foods in general and gluten in particular, reduced demand. The crop also doesn’t have the sort of consistent demand that corn and soybeans do.

“Wheat doesn’t have ethanol, like corn does,” said Matt Roberts, an agricultural economist and principal of Kernmantle Group. “Or China like soybeans does.”

“Soybeans and corn are more consistent,” said Tadd Nicholson, executive director of the Ohio Corn & Wheat Growers Association. “It is just less profitable

for farmers to grow wheat.”

That said, Ohio’s farmers aren’t likely to cut much more acreage. The state’s soft red variety has stable demand as the base for cookies and crackers — and as straw. However, Roberts and Nicholson don’t see a path for wheat to return to its days of endless amber waves, at least not in Ohio.

“It’s hard to see what would make the price go up to swell the acres,” Nicholson said.

For some farmers, wheat is part of a tradition; it’s just what you do, Miller said.

“I have a neighbor who planted wheat for 40 years. He told me they decided not to plant it this year,” he said. “He was sort of bummed.”