Canada Markets

Being the furthest province behind in spring planting due to a late spring and uncooperative weather, Saskatchewan has made significant strides in planting progress in the past week. As of May 27, planting was reported as being 67% complete, which is a jump from the 27% reported as of May 20. 2013 planting progress is now just 3 percentage points behind the five-year average of 70%.

It's a mixed bag across the province, with the southeast region, the southwest region and the east-central region ahead of their five-year average pace, while the northeast region, the northwest region and west-central Saskatchewan running behind their five-year average pace. The furthest behind is the northeast region of the province, which is 51% complete, while the five-year average is 71%.

Of concern is the fact that all six of the crop regions in Saskatchewan are reporting an estimated acreage that will not be seeded due to excess moisture. This ranges from a low of 2% of the acres in the southwest region to 10% in west-central Saskatchewan.

Utilizing Sask Agriculture's production statistics by crop district, specifically the 10-year average seeded acres by crop district for the 2002-2011 period, the potential loss in seeded acres could be estimated as high as 2.27 million acres of the 35.87 million acres that were seeded on average over the 10-year period, or a total loss of 6.3% of available acres.

While this is a substantial loss in seeded acres, this compares to the drop in seeded acres from 2009 to 2010 from 34.2 million acres to 29.690 ma, a drop of 13.2%. Weather will be the key moving forward.

Cliff Jamieson can be reached at cliff.jamieson@telventdtn.com

(AG)

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