Seeding intentions

According to the Statistics Canada seeding intentions report released yesterday, there are some dramatically different seeding intentions between the three Prairie Provinces. On lentils, the increase in Saskatchewan is pegged at 16 per cent which would increase lentil acres to 2.7 million. This is far below trade estimates. The increase in Alberta is 200 per cent – a tripling of acres. This huge increase is possible because Alberta is starting at a miniscule level. Even after the 200 per cent increase, they’ll only be at 135,000 acres. On canola, Alberta acreage is expected to be up 2 percent, while the Saskatchewan increase is forecast at 9. In Manitoba, canola acreage is actually expected to be down slightly. The situation is reversed on field peas. Alberta acreage is forecast to be unchanged. Saskatchewan field pea acreage is down 6 per cent, while Manitoba pea acreage is up a whopping 41 per cent, albeit still a pretty small number. On other crops, there’s more agreement between the provinces. Flax is down 15 to 17 per cent in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Durum is down massively in Alberta (48 per cent) and Saskatchewan (32 per cent). In all three provinces, spring wheat is up a bit and barley is down a bit. I’m Kevin Hursh.