Wheat production in the United States

The US is ranked fourth in production volume of wheat, with almost 50 million tons produced in 2020, behind only China, India and Russia.

[5] Although it was first introduced to the Western Hemisphere soon after the discovery of the New World, wheat came to be grown in North American soil only during the colonial period.

Improvements in wheat breeding in the U.S. were an activity of the state agricultural experiment stations, while the federal officials concentrated on exploring possibilities of gaining from appropriate varieties developed in other parts of the world.

[8] After the American Civil War, the western Mississippi Valley and the Great Plains to its west, where large fertile lands were available, resulted in expanding wheat farming.

By this time, better tillage equipment was in use, railroads provided better access to world markets, better trading and warehousing facilities were facilitated, and more particularly introduction of hard winter[clarification needed][word missing?]

By 1895, in Bonanza farms in the Dakotas, it took six different people and 36 horses pulling huge harvesters, working 10 hours a day, to produce 20,000 bushels.

In the hot climatic conditions of these states, winter wheat is raised by planting in fall and harvesting in the spring, taking advantage of autumn rains.

[15] Of wheat grown in the United States, 36% percent is consumed domestically by humans, 50% is exported, 10% is used for livestock feed, and 4% is used for seedlings.

[14][18] In 1941, the wheat industry began to adopt voluntary widespread enrichment (fortification) of wheat flour with vitamins, folic acid, and iron, the outcome of a recommendation by the National Nutrition Conference for Defense, charged with investigating the causes of poor health among many World War II recruits.

The United States is a major wheat-producing country, with output typically exceeded only by China, the European Union, and India.

During the first decade of the 2000s, wheat ranked third among U.S. field crops in both planted acreage and gross farm income; the first two positions were held by corn and soybeans.

[24][25] It is generally accepted that wheat is beneficial to grow in the off season compared to other crops as its planting occurs, depending on the agro-climatic condition, in late fall or early spring.

Historically, habitat conversion in the US has occurred in agropastoral land areas as in many other countries, and is considered a natural development.

[26] Nearly 50% of the wheat produced in the US is exported, although the share of the world market has declined due to competition from Argentina, Australia, Canada, European Union (France and Germany), Turkey, United Kingdom and also recently from Ukraine and Russia.

However, the producers continue to increase exports as in the domestic market wheat products have not been competitive in recent years.