Normally, farmers drive their trucks up to one of the 75 grain bins at Westlock Seed Cleaning Co-op and pick up their seed on the way to the field.
Not this year.
“A lot more farmers are looking at buying early,” said Wayne Walker, manager of the plant north of Edmonton.
“Normally they wait until spring, but they’re already picking seed up.”
The new semi-dwarf, six-row feed barley Kasota along with the early maturing feed barley AC Stacey are in short supply, said Walker.
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Supply of malting barley in the area is also expected to be tight by spring, he said. The problems seem to stem from last fall’s poor harvest when crops still in the field were hurt by frost, rain and snow. The weather damaged the seed, making it unsuitable to plant this spring.
The story is repeated in many parts of the Prairies.
Bill Vant Erve, crop production services co-ordinator with United Grain Growers in Grande Prairie, expects to be sold out of his certified cereal seed by the end of March because of the poor germination on farmers’ own seed.
“Most of the cereal is not meeting germ,” said Vant Erve. “There is definitely a demand for cereal seed.”
In the Peace River area many farmers traditionally plant homegrown seed, but because of poor germination rates many will be looking for certified seed, he said.
There isn’t a shortage of canola seed, but farmers are asking for new herbicide-tolerant varieties.
In southern Saskatchewan, Blain Hjertaas, a seed grower near Redvers, doesn’t think demand is greater than normal.
“Most things are OK except oats. Oat germ is lower than expected. Oats will be scarce by spring,” said Hjertaas.
Troy Basaraba, of Proven Seeds in Morden, Man., said they’ve already sold out of Derby oats. A combination of purity and germination requirements and last year’s high demand for oats has created the short supply.
Kim Shukla, production manager of seed with Pioneer Grain in Winnipeg, said they’ve seen a shortage of some older wheat varieties such as Roblin. A combination of weather problems and fewer farmers growing the variety have reduced supply, she said.
