The wet spring put a damper on many farmers’ seeding plans this year.
More than two million acres intended for wheat, durum, flax and canola switched to barley, oats and summerfallow, according to the Canadian Wheat Board’s weather and crop surveillance department.
“Certainly, this has been a difficult spring,” noted Bruce Burnett, department director, pointing to a large, blue blotch on a map of Western Canada where farmers have seen more than 11Ú2 times the normal amount of precipitation.
In Pierson, Man., in the heart of the waterlogged region, farmers usually see 50 millimetres of precipitation in May. This year, they got close to 200 mm, said Burnett.
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Comparing the town’s 10 wettest springs since the early 1900s, 1999 topped them all by more than 50 mm.
In March, farmers told Statistics Canada they intended to plant 25.8 million acres of wheat, 5.25 million of which would be durum.
The wheat board projects 1.5 million fewer acres of all wheat, and 590,000 fewer acres of durum.
The wheat board also estimates farmers planted 680,000 acres less canola and 230,000 fewer acres of flax.
Instead, producers added 1.5 million acres to the 13.37 million acres of fields left to summerfallow, and put in 370,000 acres more barley and 250,000 acres more oats than they originally planned.
As of June 14, prairie farmers had finished 91 percent of their seeding.
Burnett said weather during June will ultimately determine how many acres get planted, since many farmers in southwestern Manitoba and southeastern Saskatchewan are still seeding.
They will risk getting caught by the first fall frost, he noted.
South of Brandon, Man., the average date of the first frost is Sept. 12.
The wet weather has particularly affected farmers’ plans for durum, said Burnett.
He said farmers stopped planting it around June 7 because it takes longer to mature.
Neighbors delayed too
Farmers in key durum-growing areas south of the border faced similar problems planting, said weather analyst David Przednowek.
On June 14, only 85 percent of the expected 4.3 million U.S. durum acres were in the ground.
Excess moisture and late seeding also hurt six-row malting barley acreage, said Przednowek.
Fusarium head blight and other quality- and yield-damaging production problems could play a bigger role this year because of the moisture, he said.
The U.S. winter wheat crop is coming off with strong yields but poor protein content, said Przednowek.
“That’s a good recipe for really low protein,” he said, explaining it will be the third year of high yields, which generally correspond with lower protein levels.
Protein in Kansas wheat fell to 11.5 percent last year, one of the lowest levels on record, said Przednowek. The wheat board made its projection for Western Canadian crop production using a computer model.
Statistics Canada’s next survey of what farmers put in the ground comes out June 29.
