Canada Markets

The Saskatchewan government has estimated 89% of the province's crop has been planted as of May 29, up from 68% last week and close to the five-year average of 92%. While this is well ahead of the 76% seeded as of this week last year, the previous four years saw from 91% to 99% of the crop seeded as of this week.

The three regions on the west side of the province have completed from 90% to 97% of spring seeding (south to north), with the Northwest Region eight percentage points ahead of average. The three regions on the east side of the province have completed 80% to 89% of intended acres (south to north), with the Northeast Region three percentage points ahead of average. The two northern regions are the only regions ahead of their respective average pace.

By crop, 91% of the spring wheat (90.3%), 88% of the durum (95.3%), 84% of the canola (86.3%) and 95% of the field peas (96.3%) is planted as of this week, with an average in brackets calculated using available data from four of the past five years.

Cropland topsoil moisture has improved during the past week due to recent rains, most concentrated just north of Saskatoon and in the Melfort-Tisdale region in the northeast. The area of the province rated as having adequate topsoil moisture increased by 13 points to 76%, the highest percentage reported this season. The area rated short to very-short topsoil moisture fell by 16 percentage points to 19% over the past week, the lowest rating reported since the first report on May 8.

The crop is viewed as good-to-excellent overall, with spring wheat rated the highest at 87% G/E, durum at 87% G/E and canola at 81% G/E.

A look at the attached chart shows the crop condition index (CCI) for most crops above 200, while the CCI for the crops selected are above the indices calculated for this week over all years in the 2018-2021 period. Note that comparable data for 2022 is not available. The four-year average for the 2018-2021 period is shown by the green bars, with the current soybean index 85.5 points above average, canola at 62.5 points above average and spring wheat 54.25 points above average.

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

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