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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Prairie farmers set to plant more canola this year

By: Staff Writer

Posted: 04/27/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

PRAIRIE farmers appear set in 2010 to plant more canola than they did the year before, which was already a record number, Statistics Canada reported Monday.

The federal agency said early indications are that Prairie farmers may plant canola on 16.8 million acres, up 4.7 per cent over 2009. Canola, an oilseed whose main use is cooking oil, has steadily grown to become Canada's second largest field crop, by acres planted.

While canola acreage may increase by close to nine per cent in Saskatchewan, StatsCan reports that the expectations are for a slight decline of about one per cent in Manitoba.

Rob Meijer, a spokesman for Cargill Canada, said the decline in Manitoba may just be attributable to crop rotation or business management decisions.

"The good news is that overall, the acres are increasing," he said. "It speaks well for the canola industry and how hard they have been working."

Planting of wheat, Canada's largest field crop, is expected to fall nationally to 23,221 acres from 24,456 acres in 2009, as farmers shun unappealing prices.

The federal agency's data are based on a survey of 13,800 Canadian farmers that was conducted from March 24 to 31.

Prairie planting of durum wheat, the primary ingredient in high-quality pasta, is likely to plunge 34.9 per cent, or by two million acres, to 3.7 million acres, the results showed.

In Saskatchewan, where most Canadian durum is grown, farmers may seed 3.2 million acres, a decline of 32.3 per cent, and Alberta farmers could plant 485,000 acres, 47.8 per cent less compared with 2009.

Planting of spring wheat is expected to rise, on a national basis, to 18,129 acres in 2010 from 16,930 acres in 2009. Planting of barley is forecast to slip to 8,344 acres from 8,663 acres. Planting of oats is expected to rise to 3,992 acres from 3,731 acres.

In the East, farmers expect a slight increase in soybean acreage, StatsCan said.

In Ontario, soybean acreage is expected to climb to 2.45 million acres, while in Quebec acreage is expected to remain at the 2009's level of about 600,000 acres.

The soybean area in Manitoba is expected to rise 8.4 per cent to a new high of 450,000 acres.

Soybean has been on the rise in Manitoba for the last decade. When StatsCan first began recording this crop in 2001, there were only 50,000 acres planted in Manitoba.

The total nationally is expected to rise 2.5 per cent to 3.53 million acres.

Canada is the world's largest exporter of canola, spring wheat and durum wheat.

-- Canwest News Service / Staff

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 27, 2010 B5

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