MANDAN, ND. — Producers in the Northern Plains are seeding spring wheat ahead of the typical pace thanks to good fieldwork weather and are hoping Mother Nature offers additional precipitation to get the crop started.

“In general, planting is ahead of normal,” said Erica Olson, market development and research manager with the North Dakota Wheat Commission. “We did not get a ton of snow this winter. March was a bit warmer than usual, so that set us up for early planting season. Some producers in the far southern areas, especially in southwest North Dakota, have been in the field for a couple of weeks. As you get farther north, a lot of producers haven’t started. Many hope this will be the week, and if nothing else, starting by May 1 is the common date that we’re hearing.”

The US Department of Agriculture’s Northern Plains division on April 1 said North Dakota producers who have yet to begin planting planned to do so April 24, on average. The Department said spring wheat in the state was 10% planted by April 20, near 6% last year and ahead of 5% for the five-year average. One percent of the crop had emerged. Spring wheat seeding progress was further along elsewhere, reaching 50% in South Dakota (27% as the five-year average), 57% in Washington (61%) and 54% in Idaho (43%). North Dakota planting was ahead of neighbors Montana (16% versus 9% as the average progress) and Minnesota (3% versus 6%).

Weather has been mostly ideal for fieldwork, and current forecasts contain average temperatures. The absence of overwhelming snowfall helped prevent the widespread flooding that has hindered planting in recent years. Occasional light rains were appreciated for the moisture more than cursed for the delays, Olson said.

“We’ve had some sporadic rainfall, which is a good thing, especially in the western third of the state where it’s been pretty dry,” she said. “That may interrupt planting a bit, but we consider it a good thing to get some of that moisture back in the ground to get the crop going. In general, I would classify it as boring right now, which is a good thing. We haven’t had excess moisture, haven’t had much late season snow aside from a storm a couple weeks ago. Producers can get in the field, but definitely we’re going to need more moisture when spring wheat gets in the ground.”

Drought issues remained a concern. That was evident in the USDA’s review of the latest US Drought Monitor, which said spring wheat areas in drought on April 15 were 43%, same as the prior week. By state, wheat-drought areas were 42% in North Dakota, 78% in Minnesota, 24% in Montana, 91% in South Dakota, 2% in Idaho and none in Washington, all unchanged from April 8.

The moisture situation in the durum corridor in northeastern Montana, northwestern North Dakota and south along the states’ shared border was more severe. The USDA said 79% of US durum production area was in drought as of April 15, same as a week earlier and a sharp difference from 22% a year ago. In North Dakota, 81% of durum area was in drought. In Montana, 65% of durum country was in drought.

“A lot of the durum areas did get rain ranging from ½ inch to an inch or more,” Olson said. “Is that enough for the whole growing season? No. But it really greens things up, sets the stage. When you plant into dry soil, you never know what’s going to happen. Getting that bit of moisture made producers a little more optimistic going forward. I wouldn’t say anything is dire at this point, but when you look at the Drought Monitor, those western areas will definitely need a recharge.”

The USDA on March 31 projected spring wheat acreage in North Dakota, the largest spring wheat state, to decrease 6% from 2024, to 5,050,000 acres. Planted acres would be down 9% from 5,550,000 acres in 2023.  With mostly benign weather so far, mid-April is too early to tell if producers will make any widespread changes to their planting intentions, Olson said.

“It’s still pretty early and May tends to be the big planting month,” she said. “Wheat is one of those crops they prefer to get in the earlier the better. But we’re still pretty early on in the season. Unless we get some pretty significant delays in the next month, I wouldn’t anticipate producers would change substantially. In fact, if we get progress really rolling here and the weather is good, sometimes producers will throw in a little more wheat if it’s possible to just keep going.”

Northern Plains producers have a wide variety crops to choose from. Beyond spring and durum wheat, there is canola, sunflower, safflower, pulses and other specialty crops. But Olson said there is no sign of any big changes from the USDA’s spring wheat planted area projection.

“It’s pretty closely in line with what the wheat commission is thinking,” she said. “It’s always tough because you might talk to producers in one area of the state and they’ll indicate stable areas, another area they might say down, another might say up a bit. It’s hard to get an overall gauge. We saw the durum areas and some of the other crops go up slightly in acres. Even some of the smaller crops such as sunflowers, lentils. Each of those take away potentially a few acres from spring wheat. My gut is I don’t see spring wheat acres going down or changing substantially.”

North Dakota durum acreage in 2025 was forecast March 31 by the USDA at 1,190,000 acres, up 8% from 1,100,000 acres in 2024 and above 905,000 acres in 2023.

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