Canada Crop Plantings, Harvest to Rise

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(Reuters) — The planted area and production of major Canadian crops look to rise this spring, as fields that were too wet to plant a year ago return to production, Canada’s agriculture department said in its latest outlook.

Farmers in Canada, the top exporter of canola, spring wheat, durum and oats, start the spring planting season in mid-April.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada left its planting and production estimates for the 2012/13 crop year mostly unchanged from its last forecast in mid-January. Its estimates are based on analysis, not a farmer survey.

The department lowered its estimate of all-wheat plantings by 0.7 percent to 24 million acres (9.7 million hectares) and shaved its production forecast by 200,000 tonnes to 26.3 million tonnes.

Its forecast for durum plantings slipped 2.6 percent to 4.6 million acres and its durum production estimate eased 100,000 tonnes to 4.5 million tonnes.

Agriculture Canada left its forecasts for seeded area and production unchanged from last month for canola, oats and barley.

The department expects farmers to seed a record 19.8 million acres to canola, resulting in record-high production of 15 million tonnes.

It is forecasting plantings of 7.9 million acres and production of 9 million tonnes for barley, while oat plantings look to reach 4 million acres, with an oat harvest of 3.55 million tonnes.

This year marks the first since World War II that Western Canadian farmers will be able to sell wheat and barley for export or human consumption to any buyer they choose, instead of only to the Canadian Wheat Board.

 

Source:  Reuters

Posted by Haylie Shipp

 

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