Wet weather across Prairies dampens crop forecast
Unprecedented wet weather across the Prairies has dampened the crop forecast.
The Canadian Wheat Board said in its preliminary crop outlook released on June 11 that about 7.7 million hectares will be seeded to wheat – the smallest area since 1971. The barley crop is looking at its worst seeding since 1965 with about 2.7 million hectares planted.
Three million to five million hectares could go fallow this year in Western Canada because the fields are too wet, said the board.
“The excess rain has washed away the hope of seeding for many farmers,” said Bruce Burnett, director of weather and market analysis.
It’s been wet from southern Alberta through Saskatchewan and into eastern Manitoba. The board said the region had record wet weather from April 1 until early June. Burnett said it was “by far and away” the wettest April and May since 1900 for the area around Saskatoon.
“This is an unprecedented event in Western Canada. Certainly in the last 40 years we haven’t seen conditions over such a large area this bad,” said Burnett.
Overall across the Prairies, seeding of major crops is just under 80 per cent complete. It’s normally done by this time of year.
The situation is particularly bad in Saskatchewan where many fields, especially in the province’s northeast, are flooded and can’t be seeded. Those that have been planted are waterlogged, meaning what’s there could be lost because of excess moisture.
Nearly 40 rural municipalities have declared themselves agricultural disaster areas because they are too wet for farmers to plant crops.
Greg Marshall, president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan, said he’s seen the problem first-hand from the ground and from the air.
“I’m astounded,” said Marshall.
“The amount of water that’s lying around, the amount of acres that aren’t seeded. You can see where people have tried to seed, have started to seed a field, but can’t go right completely across it and they’re turning around. You can see lots of places that people have been stuck and then dragged everything out of the mud.
“There are huge areas that are underwater. There are huge areas that are just too wet.”
Burnett said the situation is bound to have a significant impact on grain production because Saskatchewan is such a big agricultural area – the province has 41 per cent of Canada’s arable land.
Overall, total wheat production is forecast at 18.9 million tonnes, including 3.16 million tonnes of durum. Barley production is forecast at 7.64 tonnes.
Burnett said farmers can’t just wait for things to dry out to get more seed in the ground. The problem is that once it stops raining and dries out – and that will take quite some time – it will be too late for crops to mature before a frost in the fall.
"That’s the situation in Western Canada. I wish it was better," said Burnett.
"Certainly, this is going to be one of the most challenging years in Western Canada for farmers producing crops and the economic impact’s probably going to last not only this year, but next year as well."
