(Resource News International) — Record-high wheat prices, combined
with extremely favourable seeding conditions, are believed to have
resulted in winter wheat area in Ontario hitting a new record
high, according to a spokesman with the Ontario Wheat Producers’
Marketing Board.
“While we are still waiting for some final acreage numbers,
it is believed that producers in Ontario planted roughly 1.5
million acres of winter wheat varieties this fall,” said Larry Shapton,
the board’s general manager.
The area seeded to winter wheat in Ontario in the fall of
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achieved in the fall of 2005 when 1.2 million acres were planted,
Shapton said. Ontario producers normally seed between 800,000 and
one million acres to winter wheat each fall.
“With what prices are doing, producers tried to plant as much
winter wheat as possible,” Shapton said.
Weather conditions for seeding were almost ideal as well and in turn resulted in the crop getting
off to a very good start, he said.
“It was a bit dry heading into the planting season in a lot
of areas within the province, but timely precipitation has since
been beneficial.”
Part of the jump in winter wheat acres was also being
the crop last fall has producers wanting to get the crop back into
rotation.
“You take wheat at the price it is at today and compare it to
corn…and while the spread may have narrowed in somewhat, wheat
remains the more profitable crop once input costs are factored
in,” he said.
Production of the crop will dictate
what’s exported from the province, he said.
Domestic demand for winter wheat in Ontario generally
averages between 600,000 and 700,000 tonnes, Shapton said.
With production in 2006-07 only totalling about 800,000 tonnes,
there was not much to work with, once end users in northern states take their portion.
During a normal season, he said, the U.S. outlets
import at least a couple of hundred thousand tonnes of winter wheat
from Ontario.
