Stats Canada also expects lower canola and lentil acres
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Canadian farmers are transitioning away from certain crops to focus more on corn and wheat, Stats Canada says.
Growers are expected to reduce national soybean acres by 11.4 per cent to 6.5 million acres, Stats Canada’s principal field crops report indicates.
Of all the provinces, Manitoba farmers are scaling back their soybean production the most. Soybean acres will be down 14.4 per cent in 2018 to 2.0 million acres, the report says.
Lentil production is also expected to be down in 2018.
Stats Canada estimates farmers will seed 4.1 million acres of lentils this year, which represents an 8.1 per cent decrease from 2017.
Producers in Saskatchewan, Canada’s largest lentil producing province, are reducing their lentil production by 8.4 per cent to 3.6 million acres.
The lower lentil acreage can be attributed to an international trade issue, said Moe Agostino, chief commodity strategist with Farms.com Risk Management.
“It’s not really surprising to see the lentil numbers down,” he told Farms.com today. “That has to do with the tariffs in India. A lack of demand from India and lower crop prices is forcing farmers to switch to different crops.”
Canola acres are also expected to dip in 2018.
Canadian growers could seed 21.4 million acres this year, which represents a 7 per cent decline from 2017.
Farmers in Saskatchewan and Alberta are reducing canola acres by 10.5 and 4 per cent, respectively.
Growers may be moving from canola to help with disease and insect control, Agostino said.
“I think, over the last couple of years, farmers have planted too much canola,” he said. “In order to control insects and weeds, they have to move away from the crop, despite the fact that prices are good.”
It appears growers are replacing soybeans, lentils and canola with corn and wheat.
Stats Canada expects national wheat acres to increase by 12.8 per cent to 25.3 million acres.
Farmers in each western province will plant more wheat than they did last year.
“The amount of reported wheat acres was probably a little bit of a surprise,” Agostino said.
And Canadian corn acres could go up by 5.1 per cent nationally to 3.8 million acres.
Stats Canada projected a corn acreage increase of 11 per cent to 45,000 acres in Manitoba.
Farmers may be switching to corn to generate more profit, Agostino said.
“If the price of corn is $5 flat with the basis and you can raise 200 bushels per acre of corn, that’s $1,000 per acre of (gross) revenue,” he said. “Even if you have soybean prices at $13 per bushel and a yield of 45 bushels per acre, that’s still only $585 per acre.”