Winnipeg | Reuters — Canada’s farmers will likely plant less wheat and more canola this year, and harvests of both will fall short of last year’s record-smashing levels as yields return to normal, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada said Tuesday.
AAFC forecast plantings of 24.7 million acres of all-wheat in 2014/15, down six per cent. Based on typical yields, production looks to hit 29.3 million tonnes, down 22 per cent from last year’s all-time high.
The department uses analysis, not a farmer survey, to form its outlooks.
AAFC said farmers may plant 21.6 million acres of canola, up eight per cent from a year earlier due to attractive returns. Production, however, is expected to fall 11 per cent to 16 million tonnes.
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Farmers plant the bulk of Canadian crops in the spring.
Huge harvests last autumn and frigid temperatures have overwhelmed Canada’s railways, leaving a backlog of crops destined to move from western farm provinces to ports.
As a result, AAFC expects canola stocks at July 31 to be five times higher than a year earlier, at 3.3 million tonnes, and wheat stocks to more than double to 11.8 million tonnes.
— Reporting for Reuters by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg.
