Canada's wheat production goes down, quality up

OTTAWA, Jan 29: While Canadian wheat production dropped 5.0 per cent in the 2017-18 marketing year, the quality improved and about 90 per cent of the crop will grade in the top two milling categories, reports world-grain.com.

This has led to short supplies of wheat for feeding as wheat growers hold onto their crop in expectation of better prices, according to a report from the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Total wheat production is estimated at 29.98 million tonnes.

"Despite dry prairie conditions for much of the growing season, the prairies experienced good quality crops and solid spring wheat yields, due to sufficient soil moisture remaining from the winter months and improved genetics," the FAS said.

Average protein levels for Canadian Western Red Spring wheat were 13.1 per cent, below the 10-year average of 13.4 per cent.