Documentation
Scope
This data product contains statistics on wheat-including the
five classes of wheat: hard red winter, hard red spring, soft red
winter, white, and durum-and rye. Included are data published in
the monthly Wheat Outlookand previous editions of the annual Wheat
Yearbook. Descriptive information about the five classes of wheat
and U.S. wheat production and use is available in the Background chapter
of the Wheat
topic.
Marketing Years
The local marketing year for U.S. wheat and rye is June 1-May
31. Marketing years may be written to include both calendar years.
For example, 2005/06 refers to the marketing year beginning June 1,
2005 and ending May 31, 2006. Data for U.S. production, supply and
disappearance, food use, stocks, prices, imports, and exports are
on a marketing-year basis. Data for flour production, supply,
disappearance, and prices are on a calendar-year basis.
The international trade year for wheat is July 1-June 30. July 1
approximates the wheat harvest in many Northern Hemisphere
countries. USDA estimates wheat imports and exports for all
countries in the Production, Supply, and Distribution (PS&D)
database on both a country's local marketing year and the
international trade year. Putting all countries on the same
12-month year facilitates analysis of competition and market share.
For some countries, like Canada and the European Union, the local
marketing year and trade year are the same. However, countries in
the Southern Hemisphere have a local marketing year that is quite
different from the international trade year.
Sources
Most of the data are from USDA's National Agricultural
Statistics Service, World Agricultural Outlook Board, Agricultural
Marketing Service, Farm Service Agency, and Foreign Agricultural
Service. Other data are from the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S.
Census Bureau. Some data are calculated by ERS.
Updates
Most data are updated monthly or quarterly. Some data are
updated only annually.
Conversion Factors
Several units of measure are used in this data product. Here are
a few useful conversion factors:
- 1 bushel of wheat = 60 pounds or 77.2 kilograms/hectoliter
- 1 metric ton = 2,204.622 pounds
- Bushels x 0.0272155 = metric tons
- Metric tons x 36.7437 = bushels
- Price per bushel x 36.7437 = price per metric ton
- Price per metric ton x 0.0272155 = price per bushel
- 1 acre = 0.4047 hectares
- 1 hectare = 2.4710 acres
- Bushels/acre x 0.06725 = metric tons/hectare
- Metric tons/hectare x 14.87 = bushels/acre
Supply and Disappearance
Data
Estimating the supply and disappearance of U.S. wheat is a joint
effort of several agencies of USDA's Wheat Interagency Commodity
Estimates Committee (ICEC). Through the wheat ICEC, USDA estimates
supply and use variables for each of the five U.S. classes of
wheat. These estimates are published monthly in World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates
(WASDE), and changes in the estimates from month-to-month are
explained in ERS' monthly Wheat Outlook. For more information,
see USDA
Outlook Process and Estimating Wheat Supply and
Use.
Food Use Data
Domestic food use of wheat must be estimated indirectly because
no data are collected on actual consumption of wheat in the United
States. Estimates are made on a monthly basis. The estimate is the
sum of wheat milled for flour, net imports (imports minus exports)
of flour and wheat products (only wheat products used for food,
products used for feed are excluded), and nonflour wheat use (grain
processed in some way other than milling).
Monthly estimates of all wheat and durum grain milled and flour
and millfeed produced are calculated by ERS using quarterly data
from the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau. Monthly
ERS food import and export estimates are a subset of the monthly
wheat import and export estimates made by ERS using monthly trade
data from the Census Bureau. The Census flour and wheat product
trade data are converted to ERS estimates of grain-equivalent
bushels of wheat. The estimate for nonflour wheat use is made by
ERS. See Estimating Domestic Food Use in the
Wheat topic for more information.
Price Data
Farm Prices
Annual season-average price for all wheat, rye, and each of the
five classes of wheat is based on monthly prices received by
farmers weighted by monthly marketings. These prices are from
USDA's National
Agricultural Statistics Service.
The season-average price for all wheat for the current marketing
year is published in World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates
as a projected price range.
Market Prices
The monthly, cash-bid prices for various classes and grades of
wheat at principal U.S. wheat markets are from USDA's Agricultural
Marketing Service. The monthly market prices for Canada,
Australia, and the Netherlands (Rotterdam) are calculated by ERS
from weekly prices from the International Grains Council'sGrain
Market Report. The monthly prices for Argentina are from Republica
Argentina, Secretaria de Agricultura, Ganaderia, Pesca y Alimentos
(SAGPyA).
Import and Export Data
Data Discrepancies (July 18, 2008): Durum
exports shown in Yearbook Table 22 are those reported by the U.S.
Census Bureau and differ from current USDA annual and quarterly
estimates for the same periods. Current USDA estimates reflect
unresolved discrepancies between Census Bureau data and data
collected by USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service under the export
sales reporting system.
Monthly ERS wheat and wheat product import and export estimates
are made by ERS using monthly trade data from the U.S. Department
of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau. These monthly import and export
estimates include both food and feed traded items. See Estimating Wheat
Trade in the Wheat topic for more information.
Flour Data
Estimates of flour supply and disappearance for all wheat and
durum are made by ERS using quarterly flour production data and
monthly trade data for wheat products (including flour) from the
U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau. See Estimating
Domestic Food Use in the Wheat topic for more information. Per
capita estimates of wheat flour disappearance (pounds of
flour/person) are made using population data from the U.S.
Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis. The population
series used is a calendar-year average of monthly estimates of
residents plus Armed Forces overseas.
Wheat grain, flour, and byproduct prices and average flour
extraction rates at Kansas City and Minneapolis are used to
estimate quarterly and marketing year profitability in these two
milling centers. The wheat milled in Kansas City is No. 1 hard red
winter, 13-percent protein and the flour produced is bakers
standard patent. The wheat milled in Minneapolis is No. 1 dark
northern spring, 14-percent protein and the flour produced is
spring standard patent. The byproducts are middlings and bran.
Monthly cash-bid grain prices and mid-month wholesale prices for
the byproducts are from USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service. The
mid-month flour wholesale prices are from Sosland Publishing
Company'sMilling and Baking NewsMarket Fax.