crop week

After a significant reduction in seeded acreage during the fall of 2013, the Saskatchewan Winter Cereals Development Commission was hoping that 2014 would be a rebound year.
Unfortunately, that was not the case, according to SWCDC chair Dale Hicks.
By all accounts, winter wheat plantings in Saskatchewan were down again in the fall of 2014.
Smaller plantings last fall were primarily the result of a late, wet harvest, Hicks said.
Provincial winter wheat plantings are estimated at about 260,000 acres.
Western Canadian acreage was also sharply down.
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Prairie-wide plantings will likely come in at about 650,000 acres, down from more than 1.2 million acres in 2012.
“The long wet harvest was not good … for winter wheat seeding, and we ended up with similar acres to (2013), which is about half of the normal,” Hicks said his 2014 chairman’s report to SWCDC members.
“Despite that, “the interest in winter wheat remains strong and acres will rise again given a normal fall, so planning for the 2015 season should begin now.”
Due to its often-tricky seeding window, winter wheat acreage hinges on timely crop maturity and co-operative weather throughout the late summer and early fall.
Hicks said early-maturing canola varieties are an ideal rotational fit.
The reduction in acreage during the past two years has presented financial challenges for the SWCDC, he added.
Producer levies collected in 2014 came in at roughly $121,000, down from $234,000 a year earlier.
Despite that, the commission expects to fulfill its research funding obligations, said SWCDC executive director Jake Davidson.
Growers also faced additional marketing challenges in 2014.
A number of growers had difficulty delivering against CWRW contracts for high quality milling grain.
Delivery opportunities for small contracts were limited or delayed, largely because railways and elevator companies were focused on moving bigger crops, including canola and spring wheat.
Many winter wheat growers who were planning to fill contracts with producer car deliveries faced significant delays, Hicks added.
Fusarium levels were also unusually high in much of the CWRW crop that was harvested last fall.
Hicks said significant quantities of grain were being blended and sold into lower value feed and ethanol markets.
Nonetheless, there is cause for optimism.
Yield potential of CWRW varieties is already assumed to be 20 to 25 percent higher than most CWRS varieties.
That yield differential could widen as new CWRW varieties come on line.
brian.cross@producer.com
