EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. — Acreage seeded for winter wheat this year in Illinois likely will be at its lowest level in more than six years, byproducts of Mother Nature’s early arctic blast last week and wet weather that prolonged harvest season into early November.

“I have no scientific way to estimate at this point, so based solely on what I’ve been told by other growers and those buying seed, I’d say that in southern Illinois, where most of our wheat is grown, we likely are down 20 to 25 percent in acreage,” said Kyle Brase. He’s a fifth-generation grower just outside Edwardsville and president of the Illinois Wheat Assoc.

Rains that pushed back harvest of soybeans on average of about four weeks stalled wheat seeding in parts throughout the state, and with last week’s early deep freeze growers already are wondering whether wheat took hold enough so yields don’t suffer next spring, he said.

“Overall, we’ll be down in acreage by a fair amount, but the bottom line is that we have to make sure that the crop we have is a quality crop,” Brase continued.

Last year, growers in Illinois planted approximately 750,000 acres of wheat, down from about 875,000 the year before. At its peak, wheat was planted on about 1.2 million acres in 2007, the year before prices for corn and soybeans escalated.

Prices for wheat on the futures markets, though, have risen slightly during the past two weeks based primarily on conditions in the United States and because of the volatility in Ukraine and Russia, said Jody Lawrence, analyst and owner of Strategic Trading Advisors. And prices remain stable or increase slightly because of the smaller crop; the USDA last week adjusted the expected wheat crop downward by 9 million bushels, to about 2.03 billion. Wheat stocks also were lowered to about 844 million bushels, down 10 million.

The lower supply helps bolster the argument that wheat, from a price standpoint, should be a good payoff for growers, Brase said. “Wheat’s got some real, fundamental strength behind it right now.”

Brase also noted that crop insurance, if planting takes place on time, is set to cover the crop for about $6 a bushel, not far off the current futures price of $6.25.

In Illinois, at least 50 percent of the wheat crop is in the ground by mid-October. This year, less than 15 percent of the expected wheat crop was planted, according to the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.