The harvest of spring and winter wheat around the world is either progressing or almost done with conditions and yields being mixed.
The spring wheat harvest in Saskatchewan is at 28 per cent complete with an average yield of 45 bushels an acre, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. Alberta’s wheat crop is 36 per cent harvested but yields are 5 bushels an acre lower than what Statistics Canada expected. For Durum, Saskatchewan farmers have 63 per cent of the crop combined with an average yield of 33 bushels an acre, about 2 bushels an acre lower than Stats Canada’s estimate a week ago.
In other parts of the world, harvest is wrapping up in the European Union, though yields are poor in Belgium, France, and Italy, but conditions were exceptional in Bulgaria, Romania, and Spain. Marlene Boersch with Mercantile Consulting Venture says “early fall dryness is causing some planting concerns firstly impacting the earlier planted rapeseed crops and East European farmers are likely to skip rapeseed plantings for later seeded wheat, hoping soil moisture levels improve later.”
In Australia, conditions are great in New South Wales, Queensland, and Western Australia, but it’s dry in parts of South Australia and Victoria. Boersch says weather forecasts for next week suggest rain for New South Wales and Victoria, but Western Australia missing out on the moisture.
Conditions are mixed in Argentina due to a lack of soil moisture and low temperatures in the central and northern regions, delaying crop growth. BAGE is optimistic about crop conditions but left the production outlook at 18.1 million tonnes.
Harvest in the U.K., Turkey, and Ukraine are wrapping up. The Russian winter wheat harvest is almost done but yields aren’t great due to frost in May and a hot June. The U.S. winter wheat harvest is also wrapping up while the spring wheat harvest is progressing with above-average yields. China continues with its spring wheat harvest.
Week 4 Canadian wheat exports
Canadian wheat exports through the first 4 weeks of the 2024-25 crop year remain ahead of last year’s start, but it slowed a bit last week.
Quoting numbers from the Canadian Grain Commission, Boersch says week 4 exports were modest at 283 thousand metric tonnes (mt) for a year-to-date total of 1.3 million mt, just ahead of last year’s total. “We would say continue to hold grains into the new year if you have the cash flow looked after. Prices may remain low due to harvest pressure for a little while but will recover as we go forward.” Boersch advised.
Durum exports were at a decent level of 68 thousand metric tonnes, bringing the year-to-date total to 214 thousand tonnes, well ahead of last year.
Boersch’s comments come from the SaskWheat Market Outlook which can be found on the SaskWheat website.