The executive director of Winter Cereals Canada says, as a result of its consistent quality, the level of interest in Canadian winter wheat among end users in the U.S. is building.
Although the number of winter wheat acres planted in Manitoba and Saskatchewan last fall fell by about two thirds, the crop appears to have come through the winter in good shape.
Jake Davidson, the executive director of Winter Cereals Canada recalls following the drought that hit the U.S. in 2012 companies in the southern U.S. that had not been interested in winter wheat in previous years purchased large quantities of Canadian winter wheat for feed and they really took a shine to it and there’s also been an increased interest in the U.S. milling market.
Canadian winter wheat is quite different than American winter wheat.
Our winter wheat tends to mill a little bit better, it’s more uniform because our whole licensing system results in a more uniform arrangement of varieties so when you get Canadian winter wheat it’s a much more consistent type of a product than U.S. winter wheat.
If you were to draw a square on a board that was two foot square, the two foot square could represent the quality variation from one end to other for American winter wheat.
If you went up into the upper right hand corner and drew a square about 10 by 10 that would be the uniformity of Canadian winter wheat.
So the Americans have soon discovered that buying Canadian winter wheat, you’re getting the same product more often than if you buy American winter wheat.
You could get A one day and Z the next day where as our variation is much less than that.
So we gained a market through the unfortunate nature of one year’s crop in the U.S. when they didn’t have any.
Davidson notes winter wheat remains popular domestically for use as feed in the hog and poultry industries, it’s used extensively in the ethanol industry and it has a spot in the milling industry.
