By Rod Nickel and Simon Doyle
WINNIPEG, Manitoba/OTTAWA, June 30 (Reuters) – Canadian farmers planted more canola and less wheat than expected during a harsh spring that included crop-damaging frost and dryness, according to a Statistics Canada report on Tuesday.
Statscan estimated canola plantings at 19.8 million acres, up 2 percent from its April forecast and exceeding the average trade estimate of 19.5 million. Last year, farmers seeded 20.3 million.
All-wheat plantings were pegged at 24.1 million acres, well below Statscan’s previous estimate of 24.8 million and the trade expectation of 24.6 million.
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Last year, farmers planted 23.8 million acres of all-wheat, a category that also includes durum and winter wheat.
ICE Canada November canola futures continued trading lower after the report and Minneapolis September spring wheat was little changed.
The market is more focused on dry conditions that threaten to reduce canola yield, said analyst Dave Reimann of Cargill Ltd’s grain marketing services division.
Some canola planted in spring and included in the report may not have survived, he said.
Topsoil moisture conditions in Saskatchewan and Alberta are the poorest for this time of year since 1988, Scotiabank Vice President Patricia Mohr wrote in a report on Monday.
It’s likely that about 1.5 million acres of canola had to be re-seeded because of frost, said John Duvenaud, analyst at Wild Oats Grain Market Advisory. He said no more than 1.3 million acres were re-planted with canola.
Statscan’s canola estimate is “probably larger than reality,” he said on a conference call organized by MGEX.
Farmers planted less spring wheat than forecast because its return looked less attractive than those for canola and durum, Reimann said.
Canada is the world’s second-largest wheat exporter and the biggest shipper of canola, used largely to produce vegetable oil.
Durum plantings of 5.75 million acres – the largest in seven years – exceeded trade expectations and were 1 million acres more than the previous year.
Durum is mainly used to make pasta.
This year, durum crops are struggling in Tunisia and Europe, Duvenaud said.
“The world is going to be happy that Canadian farmers planted this much durum,” he said.
Statscan surveyed farmers from May 28 through June 11, mostly after widespread frost.
Plantings of oats (3.4 million acres) and barley (6.5 million) were in line with trade expectations.
