June 22, 2011

Canada's crop plantings stall due to rain

Spring sowings in Canada's agricultural heartland have stalled, after farms already suffering from excess moisture received up to four inches of rain.

The slowdown, blamed on rains of 2.5-11.5cm last week, left growers with 13% of the crop still unsown, and with moisture limiting hopes of completing plantings in many areas.

The proportion of crops seeded by farmers last week in Canada slowed from 6% the week before to 1%, the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) said.

"Widespread rains across the Prairies have dashed hopes of any additional seeding in the wettest areas of south-eastern Saskatchewan and south-western Manitoba," the CWB said.

Even on farms physically capable of further plantings, the ability from Tuesday (Jun 21) to take insurance on unsown areas caps farmers' incentive to press ahead with planting crops for which yield hopes would be limited by late sowing, increasing the risk of them being exposed in autumn to the first frosts.

With Statistics Canada data in April suggesting that Prairie growers intended to sow some 62.5 million acres, the CWB data imply that some eight million acres remains unplanted.

The board last week estimated that the region's farmers would abandon 6-8 million acres, with a central forecast of 6.5 million acres.

Rival broker US Commodities said the report could downgrade the estimate for wheat sowings by 2-3 million acres, and canola plantings by 1-2 million acres.

Meanwhile, PitGuru's Matthew Pierce noted market talk of "losses of 10-15 million Canadian acres due to flooding and late plantings".