March 31 Canola Stocks Down Almost 39%

May 09, 2025

Amid strong demand it was no secret that old-crop Canadian canola stocks were tightening. Statistics Canada confirmed as much in its quarterly grain stocks report Thursday.

The report pegged national canola stockpiles as of March 31 at just 5.869 million tonnes, down 38.7% from a year earlier. It is the lowest since drought slashed 2021 Prairie canola production by 26% to 14.248 million and dropped March 2022 stocks to 5.754 million.

Today’s stocks number also fell below the average pre-report trade guess of just over 6 million tonnes and provides further evidence that remaining old-crop supplies must be severely rationed. Last year, between March and the end of the crop year on July 31, canola usage amounted to 6.833 million tonnes – about 1 million more than is on hand for the same period this year.

In its April supply-demand update, Agriculture Canada surprisingly left its canola numbers unchanged from the previous month, with projected 2024-25 ending stocks holding at 1.3 million tonnes, a 12-year low. Meanwhile, the government’s canola export forecast, at 7.5 million tonnes, has already proven to be too low, with shipments as of April 27 totalling 7.694 million tonnes.

At the same time, domestic use of canola — largely for crushing — reached a record for the period ending March 31, 2025, at 8.1 million tonnes (+3.1%), surpassing the previous record set in 2020.

The canola market has rallied as old-crop supplies dwindle, with the nearby July contract rising to near or above the $700/tonne level and trading at a much larger-than-usual premium to the new-crop November future.

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Video: From Conventional to Regenerative: Will Groeneveld’s Journey Back to the Land

"You realize you've got a pretty finite number of years to do this. If you ever want to try something new, you better do it."

That mindset helped Will Groeneveld take a bold turn on his Alberta grain farm. A lifelong farmer, Will had never heard of regenerative agriculture until 2018, when he attended a seminar by Kevin Elmy that shifted his worldview. What began as curiosity quickly turned into a deep exploration of how biology—not just chemistry—shapes the health of our soils, crops and ecosystems.

In this video, Will candidly reflects on his family’s farming history, how the operation evolved from a traditional mixed farm to grain-only, and how the desire to improve the land pushed him to invite livestock back into the rotation—without owning a single cow.

Today, through creative partnerships and a commitment to the five principles of regenerative agriculture, Will is reintroducing diversity, building soil health and extending living roots in the ground for as much of the year as possible. Whether it’s through intercropping, zero tillage (which he’s practiced since the 1980s) or managing forage for visiting cattle, Will’s approach is a testament to continuous learning and a willingness to challenge old norms.

Will is a participant in the Regenerative Agriculture Lab (RAL), a social innovation process bringing together producers, researchers, retailers and others to co-create a resilient regenerative agriculture system in Alberta. His story highlights both the potential and humility required to farm with nature, not against it.