TORONTO – The crop update for the special crops industry could aptly be titled, The Good, the Not-Bad-At-All and the Ugly.
Production prospects are fantastic in Alberta and Saskatchewan but have taken a beating in Manitoba, according to a panel of experts speaking at the Canadian Special Crops Association’s 19th annual convention.
Agricore United special crops manager Blair Roth said growers in Alberta started the season deeply concerned about dry soil.
“That fear was soon gone,” he told delegates attending the market outlook session of the conference.
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The province’s 903,200 acres of special crops is progressing nicely due to the right dose of rain.
“Across Alberta, in general, crop conditions are excellent,” said Roth.
The situation is much the same one province over.
“Special crops are looking very good and have great potential this year,” said Gildardo Silva, Hispanic/American sales manager for Walker Seeds Ltd.
But it’s an entirely different story in Manitoba, reported Aime Sabourin, president of Sabourin Seed Service.
Special crops were among the last crops to be seeded in that province. Many farmers held off planting, begging for a little rain before they went back into the dry fields.
“I guess they begged too much,” said Sabourin.
It was 23 straight days before farmers were able to get back on their drenched farmland.
Sabourin estimated only 75 percent of the planned special crops acreage was seeded in a province where at least 2.5 million acres of cropland has been taken out of production by excessive rains.
What did get planted is suffering from severe moisture overload. A week before the conference Sabourin adjusted his bean production estimate down by 25 percent. On July 12, the day of his presentation, he told CSCA delegates to take a further 20 percent off that number.
Much of the data from the three presenters varied sharply with Statistics Canada’s June estimate of crop areas.
Roth said Alberta farmers seeded 75,000 more acres of peas than the federal government estimated. Whatever the real number, the crop is progressing well, especially in the Peace River area.
“The pea crop looks good. It is well flowered and in many cases is starting to pod nicely,” he said.
Roth also expects a lot more mustard, pegging the crop at 125,000 acres, which is 32 percent higher than the StatsCan number.
While he believes the agency erred on the low side with those two crops, it is the opposite for chickpeas, which he thinks will come in at 15,000 acres, half of what StatsCan expects.
Warm weather needed
One number he agreed with is 55,000 acres of dry beans, which farmers in irrigated regions saw as one of their better cropping options this year. The crop is developing nicely but white mold could be a concern if the wet weather continues.
“We would like to see 35 C from now until harvest,” said Roth.
The only StatsCan number Silva took issue was 160,000 acres of Saskatchewan chickpeas. He figured it will be closer to 150,000.
Walker Seeds has a bigger issue with some of the canaryseed information published by another crop analyst. The company believes the carry-in should be 95,000 tonnes, which is a far cry from Stat Publishing’s 175,000 tonnes.
During his presentation Silva added a layer of depth to StatsCan’s pea and lentil numbers.
He said 68 percent of the 2.8 million acre pea crop will be yellow peas, 30 percent green peas and two percent other types.
Half of the 2.1 million acre lentil crop will be large greens, 20 percent reds and 30 percent small green and other types.
But the big story in Saskatchewan is the high carryover of poor quality peas, lentils and chickpeas. Silva said 95 percent of the lentil crop is No. 2 grade or lower.
If the wet weather continues it will be a good breeding ground for disease leading to degradation of pulses, which will add to that considerable stockpile of poor quality product.
Sabourin expressed a problem with StatsCan over Manitoba’s bean numbers. He figured growers seeded 85,000 acres of navy beans and 99,000 acres of coloured beans compared to the agency’s respective estimates of 100,000 and 125,000 acres.
And he felt StatsCan’s 230,000 acre sunflower number was way out of whack. It should be more like 135,000 acres.
Production of that particular crop is also expected to be abysmal. Development of the sunflower crop is about three weeks delayed and the root system is not penetrating deep due to wet soil conditions.
“Any wind that comes through we’re scared it’s just going to lay down,” he said.
Sabourin predicted sunflower yields of 700 pounds per acre, about half of a typical yield.
