Sometimes, there is more detail in crop reports than we can deal with in one story or column.
Statistics Canada’s December field crop report is one such example. It is the last official tally of the 1995-96 crop in Canada.
We reported on the overall numbers when the report was released in early December. But hidden away in the back of the report are some statistics every western Canadian farmer should be interested in, especially because it’s the beginning of the crop planning season.
Rotations might be set by crop type, but there’s still latitude to decide between different crops – flax or canola? – and different varieties.
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In 1995, StatsCan said western Canadian farmers planted 27.2 million acres of wheat and just 10.7 million acres of barley. Canola, meanwhile, at 13.13 million – though one million less than 1994’s record acreage – still managed to hold on to its number two spot in the western Canadian crop echelon.
Of those wheat acres, 21.6 million were spring wheat, 5.4 million were durum and 160,000 were winter wheat.
That’s the big picture. The StatsCan report also breaks down the acreage of prairie spring wheat, extra strong wheat and soft white spring wheat and in these numbers is evidence of a trend within a trend. While farmers were diversifying into oilseeds, pulses and special crops, they were also diversifying the kind of wheat they grew.
Spring wheat breakdown
Of the 21.6 million acres of spring wheat planted last year, prairie spring wheat accounted for 1.69 million acres in 1995 (peak acreage was in 1993 at 1.92 million), while soft white spring wheat accounted for 260,000 acres (peak acreage was likewise in 1993 at 425,000 acres).
And for the first time this year, StatsCan tallied the number of acres planted to extra strong wheat (formerly known as utility wheat) which stands at 605,000 acres.
Hard red winter wheat has seen a resurgence in Western Canada. Farmers planted 220,000 acres this fall, compared to 160,000 in 1994. While Alberta acreage is steady at 100,000, acreage in Saskatchewan jumped by 25 percent (20,000 acres) and Manitoba doubled to 20,000.
Looking at the production of that acreage on a per bushel basis reveals one of the reasons why western Canadian farmers found ways to plant these specialty wheat crops: yield.
The 1995 winter wheat crop yielded an average of 42.1 bushels to the acre in western Canada. Prairie spring wheats average 43.3 bu./acre; extra strong wheat averaged 37.2 bu./acre and soft white spring wheat, the bulk of it raised on irrigated land in Alberta, yielded 64 bu./acre.
But yield is just one component when farmers decide on their crop mix. Price, of course, is the other.
During upcoming spring meetings, because of high prices, the industry is going to assume western Canadian farmers will plant more spring wheat, durum and barley acres this year. The more difficult question will be how much more.
Another question is whether acreage of specialty wheats will hold steady.
If the 1995 winter wheat acreage is any indicator, they will.
