Demand exceeds supply | New buckwheat varieties are high yielding and frost tolerant
Mike Durand knows drastic action is needed to convince farmers to grow something other than canola when it is trading at $12 per bushel.
So, to grab producers’ attention this winter, Durand has offered contracts of $15 per bu. for new crop buckwheat.
“I think I’m raising quite a few eyebrows with my prices on buckwheat,” said Durand, sales manager of Nestibo Agra, a processor in Deloraine, Man., that handles sunflowers, flax, soybeans and canaryseed.
“Current crop I’m paying $17 a bushel. New crop I’m contracting for $15 per bu.”
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A few Manitoba producers turned to buckwheat as a last minute crop last year, thanks to a wet and late spring. As a result, buckwheat acres in the province increased to 7,000 acres from the 3,500 to 5,000 acres that have been planted over the last several years, Durand told DePutter Publishing.
Acres in 2012 should be similar to 2011 or slightly higher, he added.
Growers who seeded buckwheat last spring were glad they did because many fields produced yields of 30 bushels per acre or higher.
Last year’s crop may have been larger than previous years, but Durand said there still isn’t enough to satisfy demand. Buyers from Japan and Eastern Canada are always looking for buckwheat, he added.
Durand doubts there will be a buckwheat boom in Manitoba this year, even at a significant price premium to canola, because the crop still has an image problem.
Many producers associate the crop with poor yields and low frost tolerance, but he said those perceptions don’t represent reality because new buckwheat varieties offer higher yield potential and are less likely to shatter following a frost.
“We have newer varieties that stand up a lot better, they yield better, they respond to fertilizer a lot better than the old varieties,” said Durand, who is promoting two of them, Koma and Horizon, to Manitoba producers who regularly grow buckwheat and those who might try it in 2012.
Randy Duthie of Lauder, Man., plans to grow one of the newer varieties this year. He typically seeds 160 to 300 acres of buckwheat. The promise of higher bushel weights and a more robust crop canopy convinced him to try Koma.
“It’s a good price. That’s all it really boils down to.”
But he doesn’t expect many producers to switch because they have more control over canola.
“You can manage canola more. If it needs bugs sprayed out of it, you can go do it,” he said. “(With buckwheat,) once the growing season starts you are just winging it.”
Duthie said his buckwheat yielded anywhere from five to 50 bu. per acre.
