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Canadian Wheat Board

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Crop issues report

The 2005 western Canadian growing season in review

Bruce Burnett
Weather and Crop Surveillance
Canadian Wheat Board

Heavy rainfall during the spring of 2005 provided excellent moisture for the growth of crops over most of Western Canada. The soil moisture, combined with moderate temperatures through the growing season, resulted in abov-average production prospects. The harvest was delayed by wet conditions during late August and September, which reduced the highest-grading portion of the crop.

Improvement in the soil moisture situation began during the difficult of 2004, which was delayed by persistent rains in August and September. However, this precipitation did boost soil moisture levels in the fall of 2004. Winter snowfall was also above normal in all areas, except southern Alberta. precipitation from the beginning of April to the end of May 2005 was normal to above-normal in the Prairie region. Planting progress during the spring was dependent on location; the general trend saw western regions planted more rapidly than the eastern growing areas. The overall planting pace in Western Canada was two-to-five days ahead of normal during the first three weeks of May, but rains slowed progress in the latter half of the month. Heavy rains in June delayed the completion of cereal and oilseed crop planting and caused some crop are to be left unseeded.

Persistent heavy rains throughout the southern Prairies in June caused flooding losses in Alberta and southern Manitoba. Manitoba was hardest hit by the wet contions, with unseeded and drowned-out areas exceeding two million acres. The rest of the Prairies received normal to above-normal amounts of precipitation during the June period, which helped incrase crop yield potential. Precipitation during July was mostly normal across the Prairie region, with temperatures slightly below normal in western regions and above normal in the east. The moderate temperatures boosted crop growth, without causing stress to the crop. Crop development was significantly ahead of last year in most regions, due to the warmer temperatures and frequent rainfall slowed crop development in Alberta and western Saskatchewan in August. The cooler weather also resulted in a number of locations in northwestern Saskatchewan and northern Alberta reporting spotty frost events in the first two weeks of the month. Eastern regions reported warmer-than-normal temperatures, which increased stress to crops in the late filling stage. Warm temperatures also boosted crop development in eastern Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Southeastern areas of the Prairies began harvesting in the middle of August.

The last week of August and the first two weeks of September were unseasonably wet, with heavy downpours falling across souther Albert and into northeastern Saskatchewan. Crops in the regions that received the heaviest rainfall were downgraded. Weather conditions in the southern Prairies were better, with most of the harvest in Manitoba and the southern areas of Saskatchewan complete by the end of September. Harvesting in the nothern areas of Saskatchewan and Alberta stretched into October, with approximately 75 per cent of the harvest complete by the middle of the month.

The favourable weather in Western Canada during 2005 resulted in above-average wheat, durum and barley production. Total wheat production for Western Canada is estimated at 23.6 million tonnes, while barley output is expected to reach 11.3 million tonnes. Spring wheat should reach 17.8 million tonnes and rum should reach 5.3 million tonnes. Spring wheat yields are forecast to reach 2.5 tonnes per hectare, whild durum yields should be close to 2.4 tonnes per hectare. Barley yields are expected to be slightly lower than last year at 3.1 tonnes per hectare. Wheat, durum and barley yields are all above the five-year average. The quality of the wheat and barley cop was hurt by the wet conditions experienced in August and September. The main quality concern has been downgrading due to bleaching, mildew and sprouting.

Source: Statistics Canada Field Crop Reporting Series number 7, October 5, 2005

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