Hopes grow for grain farmers
Mild winter sows optimism for much better year than last
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/04/2015 (3262 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Manitoba grain farmers are feeling upbeat about their seeding prospects this year despite this week’s unseasonably cold temperatures, industry officials say.
“There is a lot of optimism here,” Blair Rutter, executive director of the Western Canada Wheat Growers Association, said Thursday.
“We had a mild winter and… unless we get some significant rain events in the next while, it’s going to be an earlier start than usual. And that’s a good thing, because the earlier you can get it in, usually your yields are better.”
The president of Manitoba’s largest farm organization — Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) — said he’s also seeing a lot of optimism among local farmers.
“Guys say we’ve got the sun shining and things will warm up. If Mother Nature co-operates, we should be off to a good start,” said Dan Mazier.
Mazier said temperatures are expected to return to normal next week, which should give most farmers the confidence to start planting. Although he’s heard reports of some farmers in the Altona area already seeding, they’re in the minority. He said in most areas of the province, the soil is still too cold.
“We need soil temperatures of 10 degrees Celsius or above. When I left the house this morning it was minus 10… and if you go too early, your seed could just rot in the next couple of weeks because it (the soil) is just not warm enough.”
Mazier said farmers in western Manitoba are also crossing their fingers they don’t get any more rain in the next few weeks, because soil-moisture levels remain very high.
“That is a concern.”
He said if farmers can start seeding next week, most can hopefully be done by Victoria Day, which falls on May 18 this year.
“That’s usually the sweet spot.”
If they do, it will be a big improvement over last year, when an unusually long, cold winter and a rainy spring gave farmers all kinds of grief. Mazier said he and his brother, who farm about 2,000 acres near Justice, didn’t finish their seeding until mid-June.
“Normally it would take us two weeks, and it took us six weeks to sew our crops because of rain delays. It was ridiculous. I don’t want to go back to last year.”
Statistics Canada’s 2015 spring survey of farmers’ crop-planting intentions, which was released on Thursday, found Manitoba farmers expect to plant more canola, spring wheat, soybeans, barley, oats, flaxseed and sunflower seed this year, but less winter wheat, dry beans and corn for grain.
Spring wheat and canola will once again be the two favourite crops, with farmers expecting to plant about 3.1 million acres of each this year in Manitoba. Although the canola total is similar to last year — up by only 1.7 per cent — the spring-wheat estimate is up by 21 per cent to its highest level since 2009.
Rutter said there are several reasons why farmers are looking to grow more spring wheat this year. One is because wheat acreage was down 12 per cent last year. Another is because wheat prices have held up well over the past year. The current elevator price for #1 spring wheat in Manitoba is about $5.60 per bushel.
“We also got some good, new varieties that are really yielding well,” he added, “and that’s a big part of it.”
Two crops expected to experience an even bigger rebound this year are barley and oats, where acreage is expected to leap by 53.3 per cent and 28.9 per cent respectively.
Mazier said barley and oat prices are more competitive this year, which is why acreage may be up. Some farmers who have been growing mainly wheat in the past few years may also want to try a different cereal crop this year, he added.
The crop that is expected to see the biggest drop this year is dry beans, where the number of seeded acres is expected to plunge by 40 per cent to 75,000 acres.
The executive director of the Manitoba Pulse Growers Association Inc. said he’s surprised by that number. Most of the farmers he talked to over the winter said they expected to plant about the same number of acres this year as last year, Francois Labelle said.
Labelle noted bean prices are down a bit, but growers can still make money growing the crop. So maybe it’s just a case of them wanting to try a different crop this year, he said.
Statistics Canada said 1,300 Manitoba farmers participated in this year’s survey, which was conducted between March 18 and 31.
murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca
Well-grounded
HERE’S what Manitoba farmers expect to plant this year:
Crop | Number | % change of acres from 2014 |
Spring wheat | 3.1 million | +20.8 |
Canola | 3.1 million | +1.7 |
Soybeans | 1.3 million | +2.4 |
Oats | 490,000 | +28.9 |
Barley | 460,000 | +53.3 |
Winter wheat | 215,000 | -21.8 |
Corn for grain | 200,000 | -23.1 |
Flaxseed | 145,000 | +61.1 |
Sunflower seed | 125,000 | +66.7 |
Dry beans | 75,000 | -40.0 |
— source: Statistics Canada
History
Updated on Friday, April 24, 2015 6:37 AM CDT: Adds table, replaces photo
Updated on Friday, April 24, 2015 10:19 AM CDT: Updates