October 23, 2009

A delayed harvest across most areas of western Canada this autumn likely cut into the area seeded to winter wheat, according to a Canadian Wheat Board official, who noted that many producers were still busy with the harvest at the time they would normally be planting winter wheat.

Bruce Burnett, head of the CWB's weather and crop analysis department, estimated that winter wheat plantings were down by 15 percent to 20 percent from a year earlier.

He said farmers had wanted to plant winter wheat, but were unable to do so given the lateness of this year's harvest and the fact that farmers were still busy getting other crops off the fields. Crop insurance deadlines for planting winter wheat had passed in most areas by mid-September, when much of the canola crop was still waiting to be harvested this year. Western Canadian farmers usually plant winter wheat into canola stubble.

Burnett said warm, dry weather conditions in September likely allowed some winter wheat to be planted after crop insurance deadlines, but he also said the better weather wasn't enough to get all of the intended acres planted. Looking forward, Burnett said producers would still be looking to plant winter wheat in subsequent years, provided the weather cooperates.

Western Canadian farmers planted 1.245 million acres of winter wheat in the fall of 2008 for harvest in 2009. Of that total, 940,000 acres survived the winter, according to Statistics Canada data. Statistics Canada estimated 2009-10 western Canadian winter wheat production at 1.082 million tonnes, which would compare with 1.983 million tonnes the previous year.