Second Lowest U.S. Barley Area

WASHINGTON - Jun 30/09 - SNS -- Producers seeded 3.63 million acres of barley for 2009, down 14% from 4.23 million acres a year ago, and the second lowest acreage on record, according to the USDA's preliminary seeded estimates for the year.

Harvested area, at 3.14 million acres, is down 17% from the 2008 level. North Dakota producers seeded 1.20 million acres and expect to harvest 1.13 millions acres, both down 27% from the previous year. In Montana, seeded area is up 40,000 acres from 2008, while Idaho's 590,000 seeded acres is down 10,000 acres from a year ago. Minnesota, Oregon, and South Dakota producers set new record lows for seeded acreage, with previous records set in 2006 for all 3 States.

Soggy field conditions in April and early May hampered barley seeding and pushed National progress to almost 2 weeks behind normal. Drier fields toward the end of May allowed producers in North Dakota to seed large portions of their barley crop, but overall progress remained slow. As a result, crop emergence started slowly and remained behind the average pace throughout June.

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