Dramatic Shifts From March Intentions

VANCOUVER - Jun 25/13 - SNS -- Canada's first seeded area report of the 2013 season discovered that farmers made some dramatic changes to their original seeding intentions.

The June report is a combination of actual and intended area because seeding was not complete at the time of the survey. Even so, many of the numbers should be fairly close to what was actually planted this year.

The survey of 25,000 farmers was conducted between May 27 and June 10. Seeding of this year's pea and lentil crops were already three-quarters complete by the survey got underway. On the other hand, they had planted less than half their mustard, canaryseed and chickpeas. By June 10, seeding of this year's special crop and pulses was around 90% complete.

Canaryseed was biggest surprise. Farmers said they decided to plant just 165,000 acres this year, 13% below the 190,000 acres they said they intended to grow in March, and roughly half what they grew last year.

A pleasant surprise was the decision by Statistics Canada to include a soybean seeded area estimate for Saskatchewan. Land in the crop was pegged at 170,000 acres, compared to 1.085 million in Manitoba and 2.55 million in Ontario. Total plantings in Canada set a new record at 4.589 million acres.

The rest of the numbers were not a major surprise to markets. Farmers said they ended up planting 19% more lentils than intended at 2.455 million acres; 32% more chickpeas at 205,000 acres; while they planted 2% fewer peas than intended at 3.43 million acres, 2% less mustard at 340,000 acres; and 21% less sunflower at 75,000 acres.

Record Corn and Soybean Area

Overall, farmers have either planted, or intended to plant, larger areas of spring wheat, durum wheat and oats than in 2012, but fewer acres of canola and barley. Farmers also reported seeding record areas of corn and soybeans.

At the national level, total wheat area increased 9.3% from 2012 to 25.9 million acres in 2013. Spring wheat acreage accounted for most of the advance, up 12.6% to 19.1 million acres. Durum wheat increased 4.3% to 4.9 million acres.

In Saskatchewan, spring wheat acreage rose 14.4% to 9.7 million acres, while durum wheat was up 4.0% to 4.3 million acres. Spring wheat area also increased in Manitoba (+19.3% to 2.9 million acres) and Alberta (+7.3% to 6.2 million acres).

Producers reported 19.7 million acres seeded in canola, down 8.3% from 2012. This would represent the first decrease in canola acres seeded at the national level since 2006.

Saskatchewan was the largest contributor to the national decline, with canola acreage falling 8.0% to 10.3 million acres. Seeding was also down in Alberta (-6.5% to 6.1 million acres) and Manitoba (-12.2% to 3.1 million acres) compared with 2012.

In line with results from the March 2013 Farm Survey on seeding intentions, Canadian farmers reported seeding fewer acres of barley, down 3.1% from 2012 to 7.2 million acres. At the same time, land seeded to oats increased 18.1% to 3.4 million acres in 2013.

Nationally, farmers reported seeding a record corn for grain area of 3.6 million acres, up 2.9% from 2012.

Quebec farmers planted 1.0 million acres of corn for grain, up 6.6% from 2012. However, the largest percentage increase came in Manitoba, where farmers reported a record corn for grain area of 365,000 acres, up 21.7% from 2012. In Ontario, corn for grain seeded declined 1.6% to 2.2 million acres.

At the national level, soybean area rose 10.5% from 2012 to a record 4.6 million acres in 2013. This advance was mainly the result of a higher soybean area in Manitoba (+35.6%), where farmers reported seeding a record 1.1 million acres. This was the sixth consecutive increase in soybean area in Manitoba.

Soybean area also rose in Quebec, up 3.0% or 21,000 acres to 712,900 acres. In Ontario, farmers reported a 1.5% decrease to 2.6 million acres.

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