STATISTICS Canada’s final field-crop survey for 2024 reveals a season of mixed fortunes for Canadian farmers, with wheat, oats, soybean and pulse production showing robust growth alongside output declines in canola and barley, which appear to have suffered most due to a period of intense and extremely dry heat throughout July and August.

This year’s growing season in Canada, particularly across the prairies, was a real roller coaster. Farmers had to contend with the lower export prices offered throughout the 2023-24 marketing year while facing challenging late-season weather.

The Prairies had a promising start to the 2024 growing season, receiving timely precipitation during seeding, although cool conditions delayed crop development in some areas. However, a lack of rain as the summer progressed, coupled with hot weather, resulted in lower yields in some areas compared with 2023.

Straightforward wheat, durum harvest

Favourable weather conditions throughout the autumn saw the majority of this year’s harvest completed ahead of schedule, with Statistics Canada reporting that most crops were off the paddock and production known before the data was collected for the November field crop survey.

The Canadian Government agency pegged the nation’s wheat harvest at 34.96 million tonnes (Mt), the third biggest on record and 6.1pc higher than last year’s production. While the final planted area was reported at 10.83 million hectares (Mha), the harvested area came in at 10.65Mha for an average yield of 3.27t/ha.

The result was boosted by a remarkable 43.6pc year-on-year hike in durum wheat output to 5.87Mt due to an 8pc jump in the harvested area to 2.57Mha and a 32.8pc increase in yield to 2.29t/ha. Canada’s biggest wheat category is spring wheat, and production inched up by 2.2pc compared with 2023 to 26.08Mt, with a 2.5pc fall in the harvested area to 18.69Mha more than offset by a 4.9pc increase in yield to 3.45t/ha. Meanwhile, winter wheat output came in at 3.01Mt, 93.8pc lower than the 2023 crop.

At the provincial level, wheat output in Saskatchewan climbed 12.2pc to 16.5Mt in 2024, 47.1pc of the national total. In Alberta, the wheat harvest was 6.4pc higher than last year at 9.9Mt and 28.3pc of the total. Wheat production in Manitoba edged 0.7pc higher to 5.5Mt for 14.5pc of Canadian output.

The spring wheat quality is reported to be excellent across all classes, with a high proportion of the crop classified as No. 2 or better. Testing of the samples collected by the Canadian Grain Commission as of October 24 had 94pc of the Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS) crop falling within the top two grades. The average protein content of CWRS1 and CWRS2 at that time was 14.1pc and 13.8pc respectively.

Canola disappoints

This year’s canola crop disappointed after plenty of early season promise. The national crop decreased by 7pc from 19.19Mt last year to 17.85Mt in 2024, well below Statistics Canada’s September yield model based prediction of 18.98Mt. The result was primarily driven by a 6.9pc fall in the average yield to 2.02t/ha due to increased disease pressure and drought stress, with the final harvested area only down 0.1pc to 8.85Mha, after 8.91Mha was seeded back in the Canadian spring.

Canola output in Saskatchewan declined by 5.1pc to 9.8Mt on the back of a 3.0pc fall in yield and a 2.2pc decrease in the harvested area. To the west in Alberta, canola output fell 8.5pc to 5.1Mt, with the 9pc drop in the average yield only partially offset by a 0.6pc increase in the harvested area. Farmers in Manitoba reported an 11.1pc decrease in canola output despite a 6.2pc expansion in the harvested area, with Statistics Canada laying blame on challenging weather conditions early in the growing season.

Other crops solid

Barley production across the Prairies was higher than the September yield model estimate but still tumbled by 8.6pc to 8.14Mt in 2024. This was primarily due to an 11.4pc fall in the harvested area to 2.39Mha, after 2.59Mha was planted earlier in the year, and follows a decrease of 10.8pc last year compared to the 9.99Mt crop reaped in 2022. The sharp decline in the harvested area was partially offset by a 3.3pc increase in the average yield to 3.4t/ha.

Statistics Canada’s oat production estimate of 3.36Mt exceeded both the September yield model forecast of 3.02Mt and last year’s output of 2.64Mt. Significantly higher yields in Manitoba had a large impact on the 27pc increase in harvest volume, as did a 20.3pc climb in the total harvested area to just under 1Mha. However, this year’s crop was still 35.7pc lower than the 2022 harvest of 5.23Mt, the biggest since 1971.

An increase of 4.3pc in the average corn yield to 10.59t/ha was completely neutralised by the 4.6pc fall in the harvested area to 1.45Mha, ultimately leading to a 0.5pc decrease in output to 15.35Mt. Ontario farmers, who grow almost two-thirds of national output, reported production of 9.6Mt in 2024, down 3.5pc year on year. The province’s average yield increased 1.7pc to a record 11.3t/ha due to good growing conditions, while the harvested area fell by 5.1 percentage points to 850,000ha.

Production of soybeans rose 8.4pc nationally to 7.6Mt in 2024 as a result of a 7pc increase in yield to 3.3t/ha and a 1.3pc increase in the harvested area to 2.29Mha. Ontario is the main production hub, and growers reported a 7.9pc rise in output to 4.4Mt after the harvested area increased by 7pc to 1.25Mha, and the average yield inched 0.8pc higher to 3.48t/ha.

The main pulse crops in Canada are dry field peas and lentils, with production of both increasing substantially compared to the 2023 harvest. According to Statistics Canada, the yellow and green pea volumes increased, with collective output rising 14.9pc to 3Mt, largely thanks to much higher yields in Saskatchewan, where more than 50pc of the nation’s peas are grown. Meanwhile, lentil production jumped by 35pc to 2.43Mt, more than recovering the ground lost last year, again thanks to a good season in Saskatchewan, which accounted for 86.4pc of the 2024 harvest total.