Top Crop Manager

Features Agronomy Seeding/Planting
Soybean and canola acres down

June 30, 2015 - As of June 11, 2015, farmers had either planted or intended to plant more wheat, corn for grain, barley and oats compared with 2014, while acreages seeded to soybeans and canola were down. This, according to Statistics Canada latest installment of "Principal field crop areas" report.

The report stated seeding conditions were generally favourable this spring, with drier conditions allowing farmers to wrap up seeding a few weeks earlier compared with 2014. However, May frost on parts of the Prairies required some farmers to re-seed.

The June Farm Survey, which collects information on crop seeded areas in Canada, was conducted between May 28 and June 11, 2015, with approximately 24,500 farms. Farmers were asked to report their seeded areas of grain, oilseeds and special crops.

Wheat
Canadian farmers reported increasing their 2015 plantings of wheat by 1.3 per cent from 2014 to 24.1 million acres. This gain was driven by a 21.1 per cent rise in planted acres of durum wheat to 5.8 million acres, while spring wheat fell by 1.5 per cent to 17.1 million acres.

Provincially, Alberta farmers reported that area seeded to all varieties of wheat edged up 0.7 per cent in 2015 to 6.8 million acres, with durum area rising 45.5 per cent to 800,000 acres, while area seeded to spring wheat declined 2.7 per cent.

Saskatchewan farmers reported that wheat seedings fell by less than 1.0 per cent in 2015 to 13.0 million acres. Spring wheat accounted for this decline, down 7.4 per cent to 7.9 million acres. Meanwhile, durum wheat increased 17.9 per cent to 5.0 million acres in 2015.

Manitoba farmers reported seeding 3.0 million acres of spring wheat, up 17.3 per cent from 2014.

Canola
Canadian farmers reported seeding 19.8 million acres of canola in 2015, down 2.4 per cent from 2014.

In Saskatchewan, canola acreage fell 1.9 per cent to 10.5 million acres. Farmers in Alberta seeded 6.1 million acres of canola, down 6.2 per cent compared with 2014. However, Manitoba farmers reported a 4.7 per cent increase in canola acreage to 3.1 million acres.

Soybeans
Nationally, area seeded to soybeans was 5.4 million acres in 2015, 2.5 per cent below the record high of 2014. This decline was driven by decreases in Quebec and Ontario, which typically account for around 70 per cent of total acreage sown in Canada.

Ontario farmers sowed 2.9 million acres of soybeans, down 4.6 per cent from 2014. In Quebec, the area planted to soybeans was reported at 778,400 acres, down 9.5 per cent.

On the Prairies, however, soybean acreages increased in both Manitoba and Saskatchewan in 2015. Manitoba farmers reported a 4.7 per cent increase to 1.3 million acres, while in Saskatchewan, they reported planting 300,000 acres (+11.1 per cent from 2014).

Barley and oats
At the national level, the overall area seeded to barley rose 10.7 per cent from 2014 to 6.5 million acres in 2015.

Meanwhile, the total acreage planted to oats increased 21.6 per cent from 2014 to 3.4 million acres.

Corn for grain
Canadian farmers reported planting 3.3 million acres of corn for grain in 2015, up 5.7 per cent from 2014.

Farmers in Ontario boosted their area seeded to corn for grain by 9.6 per cent in 2015 to 2.1 million acres, matching their five-year average. In Quebec, the area seeded to corn for grain was up 2.8 per cent to 901,900 acres.

View the "Preliminary estimates of principal field crop areas" chart.

 

June 30, 2015  By Top Crop Manager


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