The Executive Director of Winter Cereals Canada expects fall seeded cereal crops to be available off the combine early this year.
Although the number of acres seeded last fall to winter cereal crops fell below 240,000 in Manitoba and to just over 200,000 in Saskatchewan, thanks to a mild winter and abundant heat and moisture this spring, those crops have thrived.
Jake Davidson, the Executive Director of Winter Cereals Canada, says growers are hoping to be on the combine by the first week of August.
One thing about winter wheat is it’s generally considered to be a higher energy product. The protein usually runs between 10 and 11 to 11 and a half and winter wheat tends to have a little bit more carbohydrate which gives us a higher energy source. Quite popular with the hog growers in the country. Winter wheat is also popular with poultry producers because of its energy levels so it’s a plus plus as far as feed goes.
The other thing is that quite often the large operations are starting to get a little thin on their wheat supplies when you start getting into August and along comes winter wheat. We’re weeks ahead of spring wheat, we yield higher than spring wheat typically by up to 35 percent or more so when the bins are starting to get a little thin on the operations and people are having to search and scrape to buy their wheat for their swine and poultry operations, the winter wheat comes in a little bit earlier, fills the need and a huge amount of winter wheat is sold right off the combine because of the fall demand. ~ Jake Davidson, Winter Cereals Canada
Davison says canola crops are advancing well, and if the canola comes off in a timely manner, it will provide the stubble needed for planting winter cereals this fall. He’s hoping to see a rebound in winter wheat acreages.
