Amid a deluge of rain and flooding fields in Saskatchewan, farmer Ian McCreary only managed to get seed in the ground on about 85% of the 2,000 acres he works an hour south of Saskatoon.

"This is the wettest we've ever had," said McCreary, who grows specialty rapeseed, wheat and red lentils. "We quit keeping track a month ago. The last four days we've had as much as we would have in the month of July. It rains four times a day."

Many other farmers are also suffering. The wet weather has prevented seeding on some eight million acres of land in Western Canada this year, and another two million seeded acres have been lost to excess rain, Viterra Inc. estimated yesterday (July 8). That will leave the year's total as much as 10 million seeded acres below the five-year average of 60 million. The 2009 total was 61.3 million.

For Viterra, a major grain handling and agri-products company, the rain damage will translate into lower sales and earnings. For the industry as a whole, sales are expected to fall by 15-17% for the current fiscal year ending in October, with the largest declines in fertiliser and chemical sales, said the Regina-headquartered company, formerly called Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. The market for such agriculture products is worth CAD4.6 billion (US$4.4 billion) a year in Western Canada, Viterra said, of which it holds a third.

Reports of rain are a big reason the price of wheat has shot up in the past week. With supply uncertain from Canada, the world's No. 2 exporter, prices on Thursday (July 8) rose the sixth successive session on the CBOT. At US$5.48 a bushel, the price is 20% above the recent low.

With 70% more rain than a normal year, Environment Canada has said it is the wettest spring ever seen for most of the Prairies.

Viterra, however, is much more insulated than it once was against unusual weather in Canada. Last year, the company spent CAD1.4 billion (US$1.34 billion) to buy barley player ABB Grain Ltd. of Australia, a move that put the firm in the ranks of global agriculture businesses and was envisioned by company chief executive officer Mayo Schmidt as the first of many moves to become an international force. A US$240 million deal was announced in March for Dakota Growers Pasta Co. of Carrington, North Dakota.

Farming in South Australia is seeing good seeding conditions and sufficient moisture, said Viterra senior vice-president Bob Miller.

"Our strategy to diversify into the Southern Hemisphere mitigates our risk and could pay off this year," said Miller, who said it will "lessen the impact, to some extent" of weather in North America.

Stocks of Viterra fell 1% yesterday (July 8). It has been in steady decline since its peak in the past year, reached last October. The shares are down 40% from that mark. Some major fertiliser company shares have also suffered; Potash Corp. shares are down about 25% since March.

Back on McCreary's farm, he worries about plant disease, with the risk heightened by the moisture. He had to circle around 50 potholes on one particular half-section of his land to get seed in.

There are also harvest implications of a delayed seeding. McCreary did not finish till June 7 and others as late as June 20. No farmer on the Prairies, with its 100-day summer growing season, wants to still be planting in June, as it leaves some of the crop vulnerable to September frosts.

The surging price of wheat, however, is some good news. "We're still in reasonable shape," said McCreary of his business. "But after driving around the province, there are huge variances. There's a lot of people in a lot worse shape than we are."