The executive director of Winter Cereals Canada expects Manitoba farmers to begin changing the winter wheat varieties they plant over the next couple of years in response to the move of CDC Falcon to the Western General Purpose class.
The Canadian Grain Commission plans to move CDC Falcon from the Canada Western Red Winter class to the Western General Purpose class next August.
Jake Davidson, the exertive director of Winter Cereals Canada notes Manitoba is still predominantly a Falcon grower but that may change over the next couple of years.
Based on the numbers we had from last year Falcon made up about 77 percent of the market share.
It was actually up from 68 the previous year.
I think as things move around a little bit, depending on where the crop is seeded and so on the Falcon area is probably pretty consistent.
In the Winnipeg area they don’t have the problems that we have in the other parts of the province.
Falcon though is a lower protein wheat and so if things are down that predominance of Falcon in Manitoba is going to have an effect on our average winter wheat proteins.
Saskatchewan tends to be more into the Buteos, the McClintocks possibly which are higher protein because they are a true milling wheat.
Of course anybody that planted or plants Falcon now is not going to be able to sell it as a milling wheat next year.
It will be a general purpose wheat.
It won’t have the value but if you’re growing it to feed your own pigs, if you’re growing it to sell it to a feed mill it’s not a big deal but if you’re growing it with a potential to dual market as of now Falcon in the ground right now has a little bit more limited future.
Davidson says there is good demand for Flourish and Moats, seed growers are reporting they are getting lots of calls and the Canadian Grain Commission has indicated there is enough seed for replacement varieties available to justify moving forward with the move of Falcon to the general purpose class.
