Canada Farmers Planting More Soybeans But Less Wheat and Canola

By Robb M. Stewart

OTTAWA--Canadian farmers planted fewer acres of wheat and canola but more soybeans in the country's main field-crop areas.

Nationally, farmers reported planting 26.6 million acres of wheat in 2024, down 1.1% from the year before though still above the five-year average of 25 million acres, Statistics Canada said Thursday.

The lower overall wheat area was led by declines in spring and winter wheat planting, which are down 2.8% to 18.9 million acres and 5.8% lower at 1.3 million acres, respectively, the data agency said. That offset a 5.5% rise in the durum wheat areas to 6.4 million acres.

Across Canada's prairie provinces, farmers in Saskatchewan reported planting 14.2 million acres wheat this year, unchanged from 2023, while in Alberta farmers the area was down 1.6% to 7.8 million acres and Manitoba farmers reported seeding 3.2 million acres, a drop of 1.4% on last year.

The area planted for canola was 0.3% lower at 22.0 million acres this year. The agency said that in Saskatchewan, where more than half of Canada's canola is grown, seeded acres were down 2.5% from 2023 to 12.1 million.

Canadian farmers planted 5.7 million acres of soybeans, a 2.0% rise from last year and the highest area since 2018. Statistics Canada said farmers in large soybean-growing areas may have opted to seed soybeans based on good prices relative to crops such as corn.

Crop conditions in Western Canada were drier than average over the winter but beginning in April most of the Prairies began receiving much needed precipitation. Widespread rainfall resulted in some seeding delays but helped improve soil moisture conditions in the west, the agency said.

In Eastern Canada, temperatures were at or above normal early in the growing season but above-normal precipitation in Ontario resulted in some seeding delays, while most of Quebec and Atlantic Canada were drier than normal.

The June survey collected information field crop seeded areas in Canada from about 25,000 farmers. Data on final acreages for 2024 are scheduled to be released Dec. 5.

Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 27, 2024 09:09 ET (13:09 GMT)

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