Uncertain NA Pulse Outcome

VANCOUVER - Sep 7/04 - SNS -- The final size of North America's pulse harvests and the portion which will be suitable for human consumption markets is unlikely to known until the final crop production estimates are released by the USDA and Statistics Canada in December and January.

Total tonnages of pulse produced will be up over last year, but harvests are no longer expected to exceed the record 5.92 million metric tons (MT) of field peas, lentils, and dry edible beans harvested in the year 2000. One exception is field peas, where Canada and the United States should set country records as North American production ends up around 3.4 million MT.

North American pulse crops are paying the price of a cold, damp growing season. Most pulse producers had trouble getting into fields at the start of the season, resulting in a slower than normal start to seeding. Crops never recovered the lost time. Most were two to three weeks behind schedule when a severe frost struck Saskatchewan and Manitoba on August 20 and swept across North Dakota and Minnesota on August 21.

It was a significant frost event because Saskatchewan is North America's most important pulse producing region -- accounting for 77% of Canada's pulse seedings and 56% of combined seedings in Canada and the United States. North Dakota is the second most important producing area, accounting for 11% of North American seedings and 42% of all pulses sown in the United States.

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