Canada's June Seeding Intentions Loom

VANCOUVER - Jun 18/10 - SNS -- Markets are trying to get interested in the contents of next week's seeded area estimates for Canada, but the ongoing battle to seed this year's crops remains the dominant issue heading into the Statistics Canada report.

The survey is normally carried out at the end of May and the beginning of June. By the end of May, 59% of all crops had been planted in Saskatchewan. The first week of June saw a big improvement in weather conditions and seeding jumped to 70% complete by the seventh. The return of rain the second week of June only allowed another 3% of all crops to be planted in Saskatchewan. No big advances are expected in next week's crop progress reports.

Across western Canada, it appeared that around 82% of all crops had been planted by the middle of June. With crop insurance seeding deadlines upon them, it seems hopeless for farmers to plant much of the remaining acres.

This could see planting of all crops in western Canada finish with farmers unable to seed as much as 13% or eight million acres of all crops.

As much as 20% or almost seven million acres of the intended acreage in Saskatchewan could go unplanted, compared to less than 3% or a half million acres in Alberta and possibly up to 10% or as much as 900,000 acres of Manitoba's intended crops.