Farmers in Alberta had been expected to increase oat acres this year, however the latest acreage estimates have acres falling to 881,200 from 899,100 last year, Statistics Canada’s principle field crop areas for June 2020, says. In the March update Albertans had been expected to plant more due to higher prices and stronger demand for livestock feed use.
Alberta’s oat decrease goes against the national trend, where oat area rose 6.5 per cent to 3.8 million acres this year. Otherwise, Alberta farmers are mostly following their provincial counterparts.
“In June, farmers reported several changes in crop areas compared with the previous year, with notably higher seeded areas of lentils, barley, and durum wheat, likely due to higher prices and better returns relative to other crops. In contrast, areas of crops such as canola and soybeans fell compared with 2019, possibly due to a shift away from oilseeds,” the report notes.
In Alberta, wheat area is down slightly by 0.3 per cent to 7.4 million acres. Spring wheat area fell 4.2 per cent to 6.3 million acres, with durum acres up 30.6 per cent to 1.0 million acres.
Canola acres dropped 1 per cent from 2019 in Alberta to 5.9 million acres.
Alberta drove the national decrease in barley acres with planting dropping 2.8 per cent to 3.7 million acres.
Despite India’s ongoing lentil import tariffs, Alberta acres rose to 422,900 from 387,800.
Pea area in Alberta is down 150,o0o acres from 2019.
