Canola acreage rises, oats see sharp decline in StatsCan report

Canadian farmers planted more wheat, canola, barley, corn and soybeans, but fewer acres of oats, lentils and peas than in 2022, according to Statistics Canada’s June 2023 Field Crop Survey.

Seeding was slightly ahead of normal in Alberta, but five to 10 days behind average in Saskatchewan and Manitoba due to excess moisture in some areas.

Statistics Canada pegged canola planting at 22.08 million acres, a 2.2 percent increase over its March seeding intentions report.

“The greater area may be the result of relatively favourable prices,” it said.

The all-wheat number came in at 26.92 million acres, almost identical to the 26.97 million forecast in March.

Durum came in at 6.03 million acres, again nearly bang-on the March estimate of 6.06 million.

Farmers decided to seed 7.32 million acres of barley, up 3.3 percent from the March number.

But the oat and pulse acres plunged.

Oats fell to 2.54 million acres, a 17 percent freefall from the March estimate and at the bottom range of what the trade was anticipating heading into the June report, according to MarketsFarm.

It is the lowest oats acreage on record.

“Producers may have opted to seed less area with oats because of high national supply that resulted from strong production in 2022,” said the agency.

Peas dropped to 3.04 million acres, a 5.4 percent decline, and again at the bottom of what the trade was expecting.

Lentils might be the biggest surprise, plunging to 3.67 million acres, a 7.7 percent drop from March expectations and well below the lowest trade forecast.

It is the smallest lentil acreage since 2014.

Growers planted 3.8 million acres of corn and 5.6 million acres of soybeans. Farmers in Manitoba seeded 1.6 million acres of soybeans, a 40.6 percent increase over last year.

“Producers in the province may have opted to plant more soybeans because of record yields in 2022,” said Statistics Canada.

The June survey of approximately 25,000 farms was conducted from May 15 to June 12, 2023. Data on final acreages for 2023 will be released on December 4, 2023, and will be subject to revision for two years.

Tags: oats, corn, durum, barley, Statistics Canada, planting, lentils, canola, soybeans, peas, Canada, wheat, forecast