Jan 12 (Reuters) - U.S. winter wheat plantings for the crop to be harvested in 2023 rose to 36.950 million acres, up 11% from the 33.271 million acres seeded in 2022 and the highest in eight years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said on Thursday.
Seedings of hard red winter (HRW) wheat, the largest class of the winter crop, were expected to rise 10% to 25.3 million acres, while soft red winter (SRW) wheat acres were seen up 20% at 7.9 million, the USDA said. White winter wheat plantings were pegged at 3.73 million acres, up 3%.
Analysts polled by Reuters, on average, projected total winter wheat seedings at 34.485 million acres, including 23.824 million HRW acres, 6.890 million SRW acres and 3.631 million white winter wheat acres. (Reporting by Karl Plume in Chicago)
