The Executive Manager of Winter Cereals Canada reports this year’s winter wheat crops are already developing heads and are in excellent condition heading toward harvest.
The role of Winter Cereals Canada is to promote the cultivation of winter wheat, fall rye and winter triticale.
Following a couple of really bad fall seasons, when it was difficult for farmers to get their winter cereals planted, winter wheat acreage last fall was up significantly.
Winter Cereals Canada Executive Manager Jake Davidson says there was moisture in the ground last fall, a mild winter with very little winter kill and a nice early spring with just enough heat to get the crop growing.
We had been running about 200 thousand acres for the last couple of years and we’re between two and three times that seeded last fall.
We believe that most of that came through winter very well.
Everywhere I travel I see just great crops, really strong crops, healthy looking, doing very well so we’ve got really good hopes for this year.
Personally I would like to see a week of the temperature getting up so there’s some growth because the up and down I think is a little hard on us but if we could have a week of 20 degrees without some rain, I think we’d really see this crop booming.
Now total in Manitoba I think was about 580 thousand acres, Saskatchewan about 580 thousand.
I think Alberta was about 175 thousand so our acreage is way up.
The crop looks really healthy across Manitoba and Saskatchewan into Alberta.
People in the dry areas of Saskatchewan are telling me they got enough rain that the crop is just booming along and I haven’t heard a complaint from anybody yet.
Davidson notes growers he’s talked with are reporting winter wheat crops are already forming heads and they expect to be harvesting the crops by the third week of July.
