Bloomberg U.S. Spring-Wheat Acres May Decline

March 19 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. spring-wheat acreage in North Dakota, the biggest state producer, may decline by 15 percent this year after snow last week saturated fields that already were too wet for planting, Allendale Inc. said.

Acreage may drop by as many as 1 million after 10 inches (25.4 centimeters) of snow fell in the state on March 10, Allendale said today in a report. A cold, wet spring in Minnesota and South Dakota also may leave fields too muddy for heavy equipment used for seeding.

Snow depths as of March 1 were almost 17 inches in North Dakota, up from 3.6 inches last year, Allendale said. About 6.8 million spring-wheat acres were planted in the state in 2008. Farmers being sowing this year’s spring crop late next month.

“The vast majority of the private weather forecasting agencies” indicate that fieldwork may be delayed, analyst Joe Victor said in the report.

Allendale, based in McHenry, Illinois, is a researcher and commodity brokerage.

Wheat futures on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange gained 20.5 cents, or 3.3 percent, to $6.3925 a bushel today. The price is up 4.9 percent this week.

North Dakota grows about 45 percent of all spring wheat in the U.S., Department of Agriculture data show. The state produced 246.4 million bushels last year.

Spring wheat is used to make bread and cereal. Including all varieties, wheat is the fourth-biggest U.S. crop, valued at $16.6 billion in 2008, behind corn, soybeans and hay, government data show.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tony C. Dreibus in Chicago at Tdreibus@bloomberg.net.