MARCO ISLAND, FLORIDA, U.S. — A panel of soft wheat millers and merchants at the North American Millers’ Association spring conference forecast U.S. 2019 soft red winter wheat production at 269,922,000 bushels, down 15,636,000 bushels, or 5%, from 285,558,000 bushels in 2018.

If the forecast is realized, soft red winter wheat production will have decreased in six consecutive years from the recent high production of 568 million bushels in 2013. The 2019 crop would be the smallest soft red winter wheat crop in records extending back to 1984.

Production was forecast to be down from 2018 in the Central states, Mid-Atlantic states and the Southeast. Decreases in those states more than offset production gains forecast for the Midwest states of Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri as well as in the South, Delta states and the Southwest.

The panelists also forecast a soft white winter wheat crop at 183,152,000 bushels, down 33,633,000 bushels, or 16%, from 216,785,000 bus in 2018.