Corn and beans are staples in the U.S. Midwest, but Monsanto’s Dan Wright thinks farmers on the southern Prairies will soon add them to their planting mix.
“We feel there is a potential of … eight to 10 million per year (of corn) and six to eight million of beans for Western Canada,” he told producers attending Agribition’s Grain Expo at the end of November.
“When corn reaches about 100 to 110 bushels (per acre) yields, then farmers start to adopt it pretty uniformly.… The net returns reach a point that are better than other cereals at that point.”
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Farmers in parts of Manitoba’s Red River Valley have moved many of their acres to corn and soybeans because the heat units are sufficient to support short season corn.
“But transferring the U.S. Midwest or even Minnesota and North Dakota systems to Saskatchewan and Alberta isn’t as straight forward as we thought it might be.”
Wright said companies distributing the crops require local knowledge because of the subtle differences in climate conditions.
“We know that we will need to use some new tools to grow these crops widely,” he said.
michael.raine@producer.com
