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Statistics Canada 2019 small area data on field crops now available

Statistics Canada has released its small area data on field crops for the 2019 crop year. The tables show the yield and production data from 2015 to 2019 (where available) for barley, canola, corn for grain, oats, soybeans and all varieties of wheat grown in Canada, and can be customized to include other information, such as seeded and harvested area. Information on special crops – canaryseed, chickpea, flaxseed, lentil, mustard seed, dry pea, all varieties of rye, sunflower seed and triticale, as well as summer fallow cropland – can also be examined.

The information is broken down by province and further sectioned into census agricultural regions; the provinces covered are British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec. Note that Saskatchewan’s defined agricultural regions shifted from 2016 to 2017, so the table cannot be read continuously right-to-left from 2015 to 2019.

Wheat data for 2019

As an example of the information provided, the production data for wheat (all varieties) shows that more than 32 million metric tonnes were produced in total during the 2019 crop year. By province, wheat production was as follows:

• Quebec: 276,400 metric tonnes;
• Ontario: 1,521,600 metric tonnes;
• Manitoba: 4,969,400 metric tonnes;
• Saskatchewan: 15,119,500 metric tonnes;
• Alberta: 10,263,200 metric tonnes;
• British Columbia: no wheat produced.

In terms of seeded vs. harvested acres of all varieties of wheat, the numbers are as follows:

* Acres seeded was significantly lower than in previous years

So, in total, 734,300 acres of seeded wheat were not harvested. That some of the crop didn’t survive to harvest, or was left in the field at harvest time, is not all that surprising given the challenges presented by the 2019 crop year.

To view the crop data tables, visit the Statistics Canada website.