Canada's Farmers Plant Less Than Intended

VANCOUVER - Aug 22/12 - SNS -- Canadian farmers planted 535,000 fewer acres of pulses and specialty crops than expected, with the result total land in specialty crops and pulses will only advance from 5.78 to 6.83 million acres this year.

The biggest changes were in peas and lentils. Instead of rising 1.16 million acres, pea area was up 887,000 acres at 3.215 million. By contrast, lentil area dropped 190,000 acres to 2.38 million instead of rising 40,000.

Acreage estimates for dry edible beans, chickpeas, canary and mustard seed were left unchanged from the June; while Manitoba's sunflower area was trimmed from 125,000 to 110,000 acres. The lack of change is not surprising because Statistics Canada does not release acreage estimates for all provinces for these crops until December.

Production of all specialty crops is expected to jump from 4.13 to 5.07 million metric tons (MT), mainly on account of a rebound in field pea output. Statistics Canada's yield estimates were close to their recent averages for most crops, which is consistent with yield reports from many exporters and processors.

It is important to note that Statistic Canada based its estimate on a survey of 15,000 farmers between July 25 and August 1. The harvest was not underway, with the result farmers could not provide objective yields.