National All Wheat Area Little Changed Versus Intentions

Canadian farmers held mostly steady on their 2023 wheat plantings compared to original intentions, according to a Statistics Canada acreage report Wednesday. 

The report pegged the total national wheat area for harvest this year (including winter wheat remaining after winterkill) at 26.92 million acres. That is little changed from StatsCan’s first forecast of 26.96 million back in April but is up 6.7% on the year and remains the highest since just over 27 million acres went into the ground back in 2001. The estimate fell on the high end of pre-report trade guesses that ranged from 26.4 million to 27 million acres. 

Farmers ramped up spring wheat area, with national planted area now estimated at 19.47 million acres compared to April intentions of 19.38 million and 18.03 million last year. Today’s report pegged durum area at 6.03 million acres, a small decline from April intentions of 6.06 million but still up modestly from 6 million a year ago. Nationwide winter wheat area is now forecast at 1.41 million acres, down from the April estimate of 1.51 million but still up more than 20% on the year.