Canadian farmers planted 22.8 million acres of canola and 7.3 million acres of soybeans this spring, according to the Statistics Canada acreage report published on Thursday.
For canola, that’s well beyond the record area projected in April of 22.4 million, and 12 percent higher than the 20.4 million acres grown in 2016. While there are serious concerns about yield potential due to the too dry/too wet conditions, the 22.8 million figure is higher than what the trade was expecting, and higher than wheat acres for the first time in Canadian history.
Soybean acres are up an astounding 33 percent across the country, from 5.5 million last year to 7.3 million this year, according to StatsCan. Ontario farmers planted 3.1 million acres of soybeans, while Manitoba farmers set another record with 2.3 million. Saskatchewan farmers planted 850,000 acres of soybeans (up 254 percent.)
All-wheat acres are down, from a revised 23.3 million last year and a projected 23.2 million in April, to 22.4 million in the June 29th report. The decrease can be attributed to a 16 percent drop in area seeded to durum, which fell to 5.2 million acres in 2017. The agency says area seeded to spring wheat rose 2.5 percent to 15.8 million acres.
As for corn, acres rose 7.5 percent from last year to 3.6 million nationally, with 2.1 million acres in Ontario. Manitoba farmers planted a provincial record of 410,000 acres, up 19 percent from last year.
Lentils acres fell by 25 percent from last year’s record area, to 4.4 million acres, while pea acres dropped slightly to 4.1 million, says StatsCan.
