WINNIPEG (Staff) – Farmers in Manitoba want to grow twice as much corn as they did last year, but the weather might not let them.
Statistics Canada estimates acreage will rise to about 90,000 acres. “We kind of thought that it would probably be up, possibly in that neighborhood,” said Allan Calder, president of the Manitoba Corn Growers Association.
“The varieties are getting earlier and higher-yielding all the time, so it’s making it a little bit more attractive for people to look at corn as a long-term, lower-risk type of crop,” he said.
Read Also
Alberta crop diversification centres receive funding
$5.2 million of provincial funding pumped into crop diversity research centres
Growing season too short
Paul Bullock, director of weather and crop surveillance at the Canadian Wheat Board, said while returns on corn are excellent this year, the growing season might not be.
Bullock said corn has a long growing season, and noted parts of the corn-growing region in southern Manitoba are covered in water.
“I think (corn) will have a very hard time realizing those acres because it has to be sown very early,” he said.
Calder, who has grown corn on his farm near Letellier since 1970, has a flooded half-section and said he hopes he’ll be able to seed corn on it before the crop insurance cut-off date of May 25.
Manitoba corn growers sell their crop to feed mills and a local distillery, and also ship it to Alberta and British Columbia.
