Agrimoney: Canada has cut its estimate for its wheat production before a grain of its important spring crop has been sown, citing forecasts for flooding which look set to provide a significant setback to plantings. Farm ministry Agriculture and Agri-Foods Canada also trimmed forecasts for stocks of a range o grains, including wheat – which looks set to end 2011-12 with one of its smallest-ever stockpiles..The wheat crop in the major grain-exporting state will hit 24.5m tonnes this year, an improvement on last year's damp-hampered crop, but 400,000 tonnes below previous hopes, AAFC said. The reduction, which leaves output on course to fall below the five-year average of 24.8m tonnes, reflected the concerns over a wet spring sowing season raised by the prospect of melting of heavy snows onto ground already sodden by last year's rains.
"Despite higher prices, the area seeded to spring wheat area is forecast to increase by only 2% because of very wet soil conditions in some of the wheat growing areas of western Canada," the ministry said. Nonetheless, a downgrade of 160,000 hectares, or roughly 380,000 acres, to the forecast for wheat area remains well short of the losses expected by some other observers…
A wheat harvest in Brandon, Manitoba, in 1922
No comments:
Post a Comment