WINNIPEG – Despite the cold, wet weather that clung to most of the Prairies this spring, the Canadian Wheat Board estimates farmers have seeded about the same area and will produce five percent more grain than they did last year.
Analysts from the board’s weather and crop surveillance department presented their estimates to officials from the grain industry on June 13.
Don Bonner said farmers were finished planting durum June 10. He estimated for the same day that 97 percent of spring wheat was in the ground, compared to 93 percent of barley and 92 percent of canola.
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Manitoba was furthest behind, while Alberta was virtually finished, Bonner said.
Running out of time
He expected most of the remaining area to be planted by the end of last week. “If it doesn’t get in this week, it’s quite likely that it won’t get in at all,” he said.
The recent warm temperatures on the Prairies have sped along crop development, Bonner said, adding the only trouble spots are in northeastern Saskatchewan and northwestern Manitoba.
He also noted that southwestern Alberta needs some rain.
If the weather is normal for the rest of the growing season, most crops are expected to mature about 10 days before fall frost. Bonner said northeastern Saskatchewan, the area east of Edmonton, and the Grande Prairie area of Alberta may face frost problems for wheat.
The wheat board estimates 30.75 million acres have been seeded with wheat this year, almost 13 percent more than last year, but slightly fewer than predicted by Statistics Canada in its March intentions report.
“We’ve basically taken this down (from the March report) because of the seeding delays in the eastern Prairies in the spring,” Bonner said.
Late seeding caused some farmers to switch some acres into barley. But Bonner said farmers who got an early start switched some barley acres to canola, attracted by strong prices.
More farmers decided to plant flax and canola than was indicated in the Statistics Canada report, Bonner said, but the two oilseeds are expected to be down in acreage by 17 and 30 percent, respectively.
Statistics Canada’s next estimate of planted acres is due out on June 28.
