LETHBRIDGE — Drought and heat have taken their toll on southern Alberta crops, but there will be a harvest.
“It’s not a disaster, but it won’t be a bin buster,” said CWB’s Justin Daniels during the Alberta leg of the CWB crop tour.
Wheat is shorter than last year’s tour, which followed a similar route. The heads are fewer and the stands are thinner in an area from Airdrie to Strathmore and Lethbridge.
“These are all disappointing compared to what we saw last year,” said Daniels’s, a future’s trader and market researcher.
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Last year, the average number of kernels on a head of wheat near Strathmore was 20. This year the average kernels dropped to 14, lowering expectations of even an average crop.
In another field, wheat kernel counts ranged from seven to 15, but recent rains have left the fields with good moisture and a hope to fill the crops that are headed out and starting to mature.
Courtney Boryski, a wheat and durum trader with Gavilon in Omaha, wanted to see first hand Canada’s key durum growing areas.
“The traders are really interested in what is going on. That’s the talk of the century, the dryness,” she said.
While Gavilon did see dry crops, it wasn’t the disaster she was expecting.
“It is probably better than expected. I was expecting really bad,” said Boryski.
Later seeded canola crops seem to be surviving the drought better than early seeded crops, which were blasted with heat during flowering.
“This canola field is very short and is still flowering, but has five or six branches,” said Daniels, holding up a canola plant.
“It’s definitely not a total disaster, but it is no where near average either,” he said.
“It’s disappointing, but it’s what you expect after a hot summer.”
Contact mary.macarthur@producer.com
