Lentil planting up 50% to record 5.8M acres
Ninety per cent of total is in Sask., Statistics Canada report notes
Canadian farmers seeded a record amount of land to lentils again this year, with 5.8 million acres of the pulse crops planted, up nearly 50 per cent from last year’s record acres planted, Statistics Canada said in its twice-yearly report on seeded areas of grain, oilseeds and special crops in Canada.
The federal agency noted 90 per cent of the lentils were planted in Saskatchewan, which saw a 43-percent increase from the 5.3 million acres of lentils sowed in 2015. In addition, Alberta farmers more than doubled their planted acres of lentils this year to 565,000 acres.
Seeding of soybeans and corn for grain increased, while canola was relatively unchanged from 2015. Meanwhile, the areas seeded to spring wheat, oats and barley fell in 2016. Seeding of most crops was nearly completed in early June, ahead of the five-year average. Sowing conditions were generally positive this spring, with only a few localized areas reporting too little or too much moisture. Total crop land lying fallow in 2016 was at an all-time low, the report said. Wheat: Canadian farmers reported an overall decrease in the area sowed to wheat this year, down 3.9 per cent to 23.2 million acres. The decline was the result of a 9.2-percent drop in area seeded to spring wheat, which fell to 15.4 million acres in 2016. In contrast, the area seeded to durum wheat rose 4.8 per cent to 6.1 million acres.
Saskatchewan farmers reported that total area seeded to all wheat decreased 7.1 per cent in 2016 to 12.1 million acres. Durum wheat seeded area, however, was constant year over year at 5.0 million acres. Total area seeded to spring wheat dropped 11.9 per cent to 6.9 million acres, the third consecutive decline for the province.
Alberta producers reported that their total wheat acreage fell 2.7 per cent from 2015 to 6.6 million acres. A drop in spring wheat acreage accounted for the decline, down 8.5 per cent to 5.4 million acres. However, durum wheat seeded area increased 34.1 per cent to 1.1 million acres in 2016, matching the record acreage seeded to durum in 2002.
Farmers in Manitoba reported seeding 2.8 million acres of spring wheat, down 3.8 per cent from 2015. Canola: Canadian farmers reported seeding 20 million acres of canola in 2016, down slightly from the 20.1 million acres reported in 2015. The overall decline in canola area was attributable to reduced seeded areas in Alberta and Manitoba. Saskatchewan farmers reported a 2.1-per-cent increase from the previous year, seeding 10.9 million acres of canola in 2016. In comparison, farmers in Alberta reported seeding 5.8 million acres, down 4.3 per cent, while farmers in Manitoba planted 3.1 million acres, down 1.6 per cent. Collectively, these three provinces accounted for nearly all of the canola seeded area in Canada. Barley and oats: Nationally, the total area seeded to barley fell 2.2 per cent from 2015 to 6.4 million acres. Alberta and Saskatchewan represented almost 90 per cent of the total barley seeded area in 2016. The total acreage seeded to oats dropped 14.3 per cent from 2015 to 2.9 million acres in 2016. Alberta was the only province where farmers reported an increase from the previous year in area seeded to oats.
The June farm survey was conducted from May 27 to June 12 with approximately 24,500 farms participating.