CNS Canada –– Recent cold temperatures in parts of Western Canada should cause some setbacks for winter wheat, but most of the crop is likely still in decent shape, according to an analyst.
Farmers in the three Prairie provinces seeded 665,000 acres of winter wheat in the fall of 2014, with about 565,000 acres surviving to the spring, according to Statistics Canada data.
The wheat that did survive was initially “looking good,” according to CWB analyst Bruce Burnett.
However, he said, overnight frost in many areas over the Victoria Day weekend will likely lead to some “burnback” in the crop.
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While it will take a few days to determine the extent of any damage, he expected the cold weather could lead to a loss of foliage in some cases, which will set the crops back a bit.
However, Burnett added, temperatures ahead of the frost event weren’t that warm, which means the crops had not yet advanced to a point where frost would be a more major concern.
— Phil Franz-Warkentin writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Winnipeg company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting.
