University News for July 21, 2010

A crop production instructor with the University of Manitoba estimates overall Canadian crop production could be down by 15 percent this year because of the abnormally wet prairie weather this spring.

In April seeding conditions in western Canada were excellent, farmers started planting and things looked good then rain brought work to a standstill.

The most recent estimates indicate eight to 12 million acres across the prairies won't be seeded this year with Saskatchewan hit the hardest.

Gary Martens, a crop production instructor with the University of Manitoba's Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, says the rain has been patchy so while there are areas facing a difficult cropping situation, there are also areas where the crops look great.

Clip-Gary Martens-University of Manitoba:
This crop season we've had warmer than average temperatures so crop development has been very good.

However there are places where the crops are suffering badly.

It seems like canola is suffering as bad as anything.

It doesn't seem to be able to tolerate standing water, especially water when it's really warm and there's sunshine out.

I have seen canola plants that are flowering just turn completely brown and die within a matter of less than a week.

The cereal crops can tolerate a little bit more water but certainly they're under stress, they look yellow and they're stunted.

However in the last two weeks we've actually had really nice weather and the crops have recovered quite well in many areas.

Martens says with ten million acres unseeded, Canadian crop production might be down 15 percent which could affect the amount of grain available for export but because Canada only accounts for about two percent of the global grain trade, prices are unlikely to be affected.

He says crop quality will depend very much on the weatherso if the weather is dry at harvest, we could have good quality.

For UniversityNews.Org, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

*University News is a presentation of the University of Manitoba's Faculty of Agricultural & Food Sciences