Here’s what to watch out for as your winter cereals emerge from domancy.

WHY IT MATTERS: Getting winter wheat up and growing in the spring is critical to eventual yield.

Agronomists say winter wheat in what were snow-heavy parts of Ontario might face higher pressure from snow mould and excess moisture.

Snow mould in winter cereals can occur when a crop is covered in snow before the ground adequately freezes, says Joanna Follings, cereals specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness.

The snow provides insulation for fungal pathogens that can survive in soil and on residue, allowing them to grow on plants throughout the winter. After snow melts, damp and cool weather is conducive for continued growth of the pathogens, further damaging the plants.

“Growers might be noticing right now some patches that might look brown, or think they’re dead. In a very severe infection the growing point can be damaged and the plants can eventually die. However, the plants should grow out of it if the growing point isn’t affected,” says Follings, speaking March 11.

“Identify for snow mould and keep an eye on them. We need to see how these plants grow as temperatures warm to see how things are.”

Follings adds some growers have expressed concern about the return of cold temperatures after snowmelt. Her field observations thus far suggest growers don’t need to be overly concerned because warm-temperature periods have been limited.

“It’s not like it was 10 degrees (C) all winter, and suddenly we’re flipping back,” she says.

Wheat that’s cold and wet, however, is a concern as heavy rains have followed significant snowmelt. While sitting water is a danger, the moisture appears to be absorbing into soils and moving well, with field edges, headlands and other such areas forming the majority of acres with standing water.

“As we always say, they hate wet feet. Wheat can withstand it for a couple days. But if we’re looking at seven to 10 days, that’s when we start to see an impact or damage on some plants, and thinner stands. If growers have the ability to get that water away in some way, that’s good. The biggest thing is to be patient,” she says.

“We went through something similar last year where all the snow melted and waterlogged, and we fared fine. The biggest thing is to give the wheat a chance to green up and begin growing … One more thing we’re seeing more and more is the benefit to early-applied sulphur once wheat has greened up. If conditions allow, that will also help with robust growth and help those plants get going if they have been stressed.”

Jonathan Zettler, Wellington County agronomist and operator of Fieldwalker Agronomy Ltd., confirms ponding is likely to be his area’s biggest issue in early spring.

“There’s flooding in spots I haven’t seen in a while, and a lot of roads that have been closed in spots,” Zettler says. “Last year we had a fair amount of winterkill. It’s hard to know for sure but it was probably related to snow mould in triticale and certain winter wheat varieties.”

“The main one I’ve been battling lately is powdery mildew. If the wheat does survive between flooding and ponding, growers may want to scout for that.”

Challenges for barley trials

For Quentin Martin, operator of Cribit Seeds near Waterloo, excess water has raised concerns about the company’s Ontario Cereal Crops Committee winter barley trials.

“They were positioned to avoid spring water pooling,” Martin says, speaking March 13. “On Sunday I crawled up to take a photo and there was water right up to the plots. It stayed on Monday, but was gone on Tuesday. This indicated the frost wasn’t very deep, and the snow cover insulated against the cold. Then along the edge of the field is a cedar hedge, which produced quite a snowbank. At the beginning of the week that area looked dead, but today it seems to be greening up.”

A -10 C forecast for early in the third week of March, however, spurs Martin to add “we’re not out of the woods yet.”

Zettler also reiterates it’s still early to make definitive assessments, as the remaining snow disappeared less than a week ago.

“The water does seem to be leaving because the ground I don’t think was very frozen. Hopefully it can leave fast enough for the wheat to survive.”

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New varieties – better yields

Winter barley yields have been improving significantly in recent years with the importation of genetics from Europe and elsewhere abroad, said Julia Kimber, sales and marketing manager for Cribit Seeds in West Montrose.

She and her colleagues have partnered with SeCan to import and trial more varieties of the crop, and as of October 2025, are maintaining 150 replicated performance trials. Currently, only two winter barley varieties — Ruzena and Calypso — are available to growers, although another variety is expected to be released in autumn 2026.

“There are two new varieties that SeCan has put forth that’s being bulked up now,” says Kimber.

She also says yields of the existing varieties are impressive, regularly garnering between three and 3.5 metric tonnes per acre on average. Some growers have managed to achieve four metric tonnes. This puts winter barley well past spring barley yields. A slightly earlier grain fill period also makes winter barley an attractive alternative winter cereal for those interested in double-cropping.

“We’re excited about that. Right now, our biggest push is to expand uses and opportunities for these new varieties,” Kimber says noting that interest among farmers in their operational area is increasing.

“We probably sold 1.5 times as much winter barley this fall as we did last year … We actually completely sold out, which we’ve never done before.”

The livestock connection

Joanna Follings, cereals specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Agribusiness, agrees new winter barley varieties bring much better yields and winter survivability compared to the common barley grown in bygone days.

An earlier grain fill period provides security against high temperature events in early summer, too, and good genetic packages have thus far meant Ontario growers are “seeing pretty low levels of disease in the crop.”

Other winter cereals like triticale and hybrid rye provide additional cropping options. Follings stresses an important step in growing alternative winter cereals, however, is knowing where the crop will go post harvest as not every elevator will handle such crops.

Having contracts in place prior to planting is thus recommended “more often than not.”

Livestock offer significant opportunity for growers, too. Indeed, Kimber says helping winter barley gain traction as livestock feed is one of the main goals of the Cribit Seeds team.

Follings adds she regularly hears from livestock nutritionists and farmers that the crop offers a good main source in feed rations.

“There’s a number of growers in Lambton where this is becoming their system. There’s a bit of a mix in terms of where that barley is going,” she says, highlighting its feasibility in the province’s southwest.

A similar story is unfolding for hybrid rye, with regard to both higher yields and feed quality.

“But again, the challenge is the market … Most of the hybrid rye that’s grown goes to Hiram Walker,” says Follings.

“If there were more opportunities for marketing and using that hybrid rye, we would probably see more acres.”

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The measures will enable affected farmers to seek compensation. Kursk is Russia’s seventh largest grain producing region. It has also suffered from a major Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s territory, which started on Aug. 6.

Russia Agriculture Minister Oksana Lut said on Oct. 7 that the country’s grain harvest would be hit by the impact of Ukraine’s attacks on grain-producing regions close to the border and by bad weather in many other regions.

Kursk Governor Alexei Smirnov said in September that, after the incursion, the harvesting of grains could not be completed on an area of 160,000 hectares. He estimated the damage at almost $1 billion (C$1.4 billion).

The Russian National Union of Agricultural Insurers reported in early October that in 2024 there were 29 weather-related emergencies that resulted in crop damage recorded in 26 regions of the country, a 45 per cent increase compared to last year.

Russia plans to harvest 130 million tons of grain, down from an earlier forecast of 132 million tons. The new estimate is a an 12 per cent drop from 148 million tons in 2023 and a 18 per cent drop from a record 158 million tons in 2022.

— Reporting for Reuters by Olga Popova

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While there has been some harvest pressure, Motz said “it’s more of an equalization of the crops.

“We got through the crunch of July not knowing exactly where things were at. As we get closer [to harvest] there’s more certainty of the crops coming.”

Earlier this week, Manitoba Agriculture reported the province’s winter cereal harvest was approaching the halfway point, while the spring cereals harvest was just getting started.

It’s a similar situation in Saskatchewan, with the combining of winter cereals well underway and spring cereals barely started. Alberta doesn’t release its crop report, the first in two weeks, until Aug. 14.

From Motz’s perspective, the crops look to be average right now. “Everybody hopes for above-average, but time will tell.”

Prairie Ag Hotwire reported that feed barley prices were down this week. As of Wednesday, prices in Alberta fell 24 cents, to $3.75-$5.05 per bushel delivered. In Saskatchewan, prices dropped 11 cents to $3.52-$3.84, and those in Manitoba slipped four cents to $3.76. Over the last month, barley has dropped 17-34 cents/bu.

As for feed wheat, prices were steady except for an eight-cent loss in Alberta. Prices there were $4.80-$6.45/bu. delivered. In Saskatchewan they held at $4.90-$5.75, and in Manitoba prices were firm at $5.10-$5.35. During the last month prices have declined 11-25 cents/bu.

— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

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“I think a lot of the guys that were growing winter wheat have moved over to growing the new hybrid rye and the rye acres are up quite a bit,” said Ken Gross, manager for agricultural programs at Ducks Unlimited at Brandon, Man.

Statistics Canada’s latest Production of Principal Fields Crops report, released Thursday, showed that in Manitoba, winter wheat acres fell to 45,400 acres from 70,000 last year and fall rye acres rose to 95,300 acres from 55,000.

Saskatchewan winter wheat dropped to 110,000 acres from 170,000 last year, while fall rye increased to 111,700 acres from 70,000. In Alberta, winter wheat acres rose to 100,000 acres from 95,000, and fall rye increased to 65,200 acres from 38,000.

In Manitoba, Gross wasn’t surprised to see the drop in winter wheat acreage. With the wet, cold fall it was hard to get into the fields to seed at times.

He also heard of increased interest from producers in newer hybrid rye varieties which are hardier and can hold up better than winter wheat throughout winter.

“I think there were a lot of producers, especially in the southwest corner of the province, that were looking to grow winter wheat but it was not a good fall for getting it into the ground,” he said.

“It’s usually a last minute decision and when conditions are tough, (it) ends up that they just can’t get it in the ground.”

Gross expects winter wheat that did get seeded in Manitoba should be doing well so far. Due to the wet fall the soil moisture content was better than last year’s, which made for better seeding conditions for winter cereals.

“As long as the winter progresses like it is, I don’t think we should have any concerns going into the spring with the current crop,” he said.

In Alberta, Monica Klaas, a contract agronomist for Ducks Unlimited’s Western Winter Wheat Initiative, was surprised to see the winter cereal acreage increases.

However, she suspects the challenging fall Alberta faced with a delayed harvest, where spring wheat crops were left out in the fields longer, could have played into the rise. Winter wheat varieties were harvested earlier and didn’t face the same quality issues as their spring-seeded counterparts.

Klaas has also heard offhand that some grain buyers have been blending winter wheat with downgraded-quality spring wheat. She also expects the increase is just due to winter wheat popping up in farmers’ rotations this year.

In Alberta, winter cereal acres are also off to a good start due to fall moisture. While Klaas has seen mostly good stand establishment, there is some concern in parts of the province as the cold and snowy weather in October wasn’t good for crops.

“The plants aren’t quite as large as I have seen in the past. But we still have that couple leaf stage and some good roots under them, so I’m very positive about the conditions,” she said.

Both Klaas and Gross are happy to see the increase in fall rye acreage. While the Ducks Unlimited program mostly focuses on winter wheat, Gross has done some work with fall rye in the past and would be interested in doing more as it increases in popularity.

“Overall (the fall rye increase is) good news for waterfowl. They find the nesting opportunities in fall rye similar to winter wheat, so that’s at least some good news for us,” he said.

While the hybrid rye variety is catching on in popularity with farmers, rye prices throughout the summer could also factor into the acreage increase.

Last year rye prices in Western Canada were sitting at around $4 per bushel; this year prices have hit as high as $8. New-crop pricing currently has bids sitting in the $5.50-$6 per bushel range.

— Ashley Robinson writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Glacier FarmMedia company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting. Includes files from Glen Hallick of CNS Canada.

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Winter Cereals Manitoba Inc. (WCMI) announced Thursday its chair, Doug Martin, and director Allan Olinyk will join a steering committee made up of directors and staff from the Manitoba Corn Growers Association (MCGA), Manitoba Flax Growers Association (MFGA), National Sunflower Association of Canada (NSAC) and Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association (MWBGA).

The four-group steering committee has been gathering and collating feedback on the proposal for a combined organization, coming out of the groups’ regional meetings in January and annual general meetings in February.

An “amended” proposal is due to be released next month, the five groups said Thursday.

Another group, Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers, had been in on an initial memorandum of understanding in May last year to consider amalgamation. As of August this year, though, only MCGA, MWBGA, MFGA and NSAC remained.

The four groups and MPSG had been considering two options — amalgamation and a model that “did not include legal amalgamation.” From those discussions, the four groups, without MPSG, agreed in August to “move forward together” on amalgamation by putting a potential merger to a vote.

WCMI’s board felt “the time was right to join the discussion… to explore a potential amalgamation with the understanding that membership will make the decision,” Martin, who farms at East Selkirk, Man., said in Thursday’s release.

WCMI is no stranger to a shared-services approach. In February it contracted NSAC and MWBGA to manage its day-to-day operations, research work and communications with members and stakeholders and is now based out of a shared office in Carman.

The new proposal due out in December is expected to include “revised board and governance structures, an organizational chart, budget allocations, timelines, and the legal process to legally amalgamate,” the five groups said.

The steering committee is also “determining the next steps to ensure an adequate consultation period for members to review the proposal.”

Their target timeline currently calls for the members of each participating organization to vote on an amalgamation proposal resolution at their annual general meetings in February next year.

If approved, the target date for a new joint organization to be in place would be Aug. 1, 2019.

While the groups’ leaderships have touted the merits of a merger as a more efficient use of grower levies and checkoffs, the plan drew some criticism from members of participating groups at their annual meetings earlier this year.

Some farmers voiced fears that a merged body might undermine farmer control and allow smaller crops to fall through the cracks. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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“We start losing cold tolerance, especially in March and going into April now. And that’s when you need to monitor temperatures or for (the crop) to be covered up if you do get some cold temperatures,” said Doug Martin, chairman of Winter Cereals Manitoba and a farmer near East Selkirk.

Temperatures across the Prairies have dipped to the -20 C or lower range throughout the end of March and start of April. Temperatures are normally higher than 0 C at this time of year.

While Martin didn’t get any winter wheat seeded himself this year, due to the dry conditions last fall, his neighbours did. Based on conditions around his area, Martin had thought his neighbours’ crops would fare well for most of the winter, but now he isn’t as sure.

“We had a snowfall (in March) which was great and got the crop covered up, but since then we’ve had some melting and now some really cold temperatures.”

In Saskatchewan the situation has been worse; the majority of the southern portion of the province was bare for most of the winter up until the early March snowstorm.

“We’re very short on moisture and we need more and we need some rain this spring definitely. But the snow will help for sure,” said Amanda Swanson, a southern Saskatchewan winter wheat agronomist with Ducks Unlimited.

Swanson is optimistic about this year’s winter wheat crop. While the winter has been unseasonably cold and dry, she said it’ll all depend on the spring conditions. A warm, wet spring will be good for winter wheat, while a cold, dry spring could cause damage.

Ducks Unlimited won’t have an idea of how the winter wheat crop fared until at least early April. Normally agronomists hold off on doing assessments and digging up plants until producers are seeding or almost halfway done.

“We don’t want growers to be worried that they’re going to have to write off their winter wheat fields. Again our message is always for guys to be patient when doing spring assessments,” Swanson said.

According to Swanson, there have been a few areas of Saskatchewan where soil temperatures have come close to causing damage. Winter wheat can handle soil temperatures as cold as -16 C.

Even if there are crops facing a little bit of damage, she said, good spring conditions will help the crop to bounce back.

“I’m hopeful that most of the winter wheat out there made it through the winter, especially those crops that made it to the three-leaf stage in the fall.”

Western Canadian farmers seeded 335,000 acres of winter wheat last fall, down from 535,000 the previous year, according to Statistics Canada.

— Ashley Robinson writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Glacier FarmMedia company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting. Follow her at @ashleymr1993 on Twitter.

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“Very little moisture is required in the fall to get that seed to germinate and start growing, especially if it’s been seeded shallow,” said Amanda Swanson, a southern Saskatchewan winter wheat agronomist with Ducks Unlimited.

The final crop report from Manitoba Agriculture, released Monday, said germination and stand establishment of winter cereal crops were good but seeded acres were down across the province.

Reports in mid-September from southern Saskatchewan and Alberta said limited acres of winter cereals had been seeded due to dry conditions. A brief reprieve came in the second half of September as rain fell.

“We always recommend guys to seed first and then usually the rains will come. Even if the rains don’t come and it doesn’t germinate in the fall it will germinate, come up in the springtime,” Swanson said.

If moisture doesn’t come until spring it doesn’t mean the crop won’t come up, Swanson said, adding it’ll just act more like a spring wheat than a winter wheat.

Farmers in Western Canada last fall seeded 535,000 acres of winter wheat, eventually harvesting 398,000 acres, according to Statistics Canada. Production in the three Prairie Provinces came in at 546,400 tonnes, which was well below the 1.02 million grown in the previous year.

Swanson has been speaking to producers across southern Saskatchewan and those who seeded winter cereals have said germination is at the two-leaf stage — the three-leaf stage being ideal.

“(The) seeding date didn’t really make a huge difference this year just with the conditions being so dry,” she said. “The crop stages for the majority are at the same stage across the board regardless.”

Swanson has heard from colleagues in northern Saskatchewan though that the situation is different, with the area not having been as dry.

“There were lot of unseeded acres in the north and guys had fields that they wanted to get back into production and they were going to seed (them to) winter wheat,” she said.

Swanson estimates that while winter cereal acres seeded in southern Saskatchewan may be down, they may have been offset with increased acres in the north.

In Manitoba, Jake Davidson, executive director of Winter Cereals Canada, is waiting for numbers from Statistics Canada on seeded acres to be released, but from what he has heard he thinks crops are doing well.

“It just stayed warm so long for people. We had people (seeding on) chem fallow, stubble and their crops are up excellent,” he said.

Some directors with Winter Cereals Canada are based in western Manitoba and from what Davidson has heard from them, he thinks winter cereal acres seeded north of the Trans-Canada Highway should be in good shape.

— Ashley Robinson writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Winnipeg company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting. Follow her at @AshleyMR1993 on Twitter.

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Manitoba’s winter wheat and fall rye crops had ample snow cover throughout the winter, which supported crops, but more recently, conditions turned slushy, then froze again.

“We were all happy; all winter we had so much snow. We didn’t expect it to all disappear and then turn into a skating rink,” said Jake Davidson, executive director of Winter Cereals Manitoba and Winter Cereals Canada.

Whether those conditions froze deep enough to cause damage is yet to be determined, as producers are unable to get into fields.

Farmers “try to go out into fields and they get stuck with their ATVs, so they’re just sitting back,” Davidson said.

However, he noted, this time of year is seasonally slow for winter cereal producers, and more aggressive crop testing typically starts closer to mid- or late April.

“The spring wheat people are getting geared up; the winter wheat people, other than throwing a little fertilizer on, this is a pretty quiet time of the year.”

Manitoba producers seeded 140,000 acres of winter wheat last fall, compared to 175,000 the previous year.

— Jade Markus writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Winnipeg company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting.

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“People are bragging about their fall rye,” said Jake Davidson, executive director at Winter Cereals Manitoba. “Wheat is also excellent.”

A relatively warm spring with few cold snaps and a mild winter across Manitoba and Saskatchewan helped crop development, he said, and crops are well ahead of last year’s pace.

“This is the kind of year where farmers drive down the roads and see winter wheat and say ‘I wish I had some of that,'” he said.

Recent rains have left crops “bright and green,” he said, though some areas in Manitoba have reported hail.

But that hail hasn’t had much of an impact on winter wheat, compared with freshly emerging crops.

Fall rye brings Manitoba producers about $5.59 per bushel, while winter wheat fetches about $5.17 per bushel, according to Manitoba Agricultural Services Corp. (MASC).

Winter wheat demand has been relatively strong over the past year, Davidson said, in part because the market doesn’t produce huge quantities.

“Rye in itself is an interesting product because you’ve got to kind of dig to find your marketing channel,” he said.

Rye is mostly moved by smaller brokers, but it often goes to the U.S. for milling.

“There’s not that much that goes to Gimli to make booze, so it is a little tricky to move,” Davidson said, referring to the Diageo distillery where Crown Royal rye whisky is made.

Harvest will likely start about mid-August, he said.

— Jade Markus writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Winnipeg company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting.

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