acreage forecasts,<\/a> Agriculture Canada anticipates above-average national production for spring wheat, winter wheat, durum, canola, barley, corn, soybeans, flax, peas and lentils.<\/p>\nBelow-average production is forecast for oats, canaryseed, fall rye and mustard.<\/p>\n
It is encouraging to hear the crop is generally looking good halfway through the growing season.<\/p>\n
Burnett\u2019s tour took him through the Red River Valley of Manitoba in addition to the west-central and northwestern parts of that province.<\/p>\n
He trekked through all of central Saskatchewan plus the north-central and northeastern parts of the province. He wanted to focus on the north instead of the south this year due to the excess moisture problems.<\/p>\n
In Alberta, he concentrated his travels on the northeastern, central and southern parts of the province.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s record canola area in Western Canada is quite evident, especially in the north.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of areas with very few fields that aren\u2019t canola,\u201d said Burnett.<\/p>\n
But that will be tempered by what he believes will be the high-end of traditional abandonment for the crop in the north.<\/p>\n
Crops in the south and central regions have far fewer unplanted and drowned out acres.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose crops look really, really good,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only concern would be some of the really late-planted crops.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was surprised to find very little disease in the fields he inspected despite the wet conditions, but the insect pressure was high.<\/p>\n
Burnett is forecasting an average eestern Canadian canola yield of 39 bushels per acre, which would result in 19.1 million tonnes of production.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/349155_web1_Bruce-Burnett-crop-tour-July-2026-canola-912x684.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
A canola field in full bloom north of Stettler, Alta. Note the drown out spots in the distance. Crop has excellent yield potential.
\n Photo:
\n Bruce Burnett<\/p>\n
It was obvious that farmers planted less spring wheat than they have in previous years, but the wheat crops are in good shape.<\/p>\n
He is forecasting an average spring wheat yield of 52.5 bu. per acre, which would result in 24.9 million tonnes of production, which would be on the small side compared to the past few years.<\/p>\n
Burnett believes durum lost even more acres to spring wheat and canola than Statistics Canada is forecasting.<\/p>\n
He is forecasting an average durum yield of 35 bu. per acre and 5.3 million tonnes of production, which is on the low side.<\/p>\n
Barley appears to have held onto its acres fairly well and the crop looks very good. Cereal crops appear to have survived the deluge of rain better than canola.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of barley crops that look very, very good despite the fact that there\u2019s excess moisture in some of the low spots,\u201d said Burnett.<\/p>\n
He estimates an average yield of 68 bu. per acre and 8.35 million tonnes of production, which would be an improvement over last year.<\/p>\n
Burnett thinks oats may have lost more acres than Statistics Canada is forecasting, and there could be higher abandonment as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really looking at a smallish out crop this year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He is forecasting an average yield of 96 bu. per acre and 3.1 million tonnes of production.<\/p>\n
The outlook for pulses is a mixed bag.<\/p>\n
\u201cLentils have been affected the most by the wet conditions,\u201d said Burnett.<\/p>\n
That is despite the fact that they are primarily grown in southern and central Saskatchewan, where the rains were not as heavy as the north.<\/p>\n
However, moisture levels were still above normal in those regions, which has set lentil fields back through significant drowning and disease development.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s certainly going to impair production,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Burnett is estimating 1.89 million tonnes of production compared to 3.36 million tonnes last year.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/349155_web1_Bruce-Burnett-crop-tour-July-2026-wheat-912x684.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
A wheat field in the filling stage near Morris Man. Wheat crop was well established before the heavy rains in June. Concerns about disease, especially fusarium head blight, but farmer has sprayed fungicide recently.
\n Photo:
\n Bruce Burnett<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a different story for the other main pulse crop.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe peas in the central growing areas look wonderful, just excellent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the best pea crops I\u2019ve seen in the last five years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peas are planted early, so there wasn\u2019t much abandonment. However, they did suffer from drowning in the north.<\/p>\n
Burnett expects an average yield of 37 bu. per acre and 3.3 million tonnes of production, down from last year\u2019s 3.93 million tonnes.<\/p>\n
Growers in Manitoba increased their soybean acres more than canola.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat you can see in spades as you drive through the province,\u201d said Burnett.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s just more soybeans out there than there has been the last number of years.\u201d<\/p>\n
He believes sky-high nitrogen fertilizer costs were the main driver of that trend. Plus, canola price prospects were not as good at planting time as they are now.<\/p>\n
He is forecasting an average Prairie soybean yield of 46 bu. per acre and 2.4 million tonnes of production for the region.<\/p>\n
Going forward, Prairie farmers need warm conditions during the last half of the growing season, frost-free conditions until mid-September, and one other key ingredient.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will need to see some additional rainfall,\u201d said Burnett.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just do not want huge amounts all at once.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SASKATOON \u2014 Bruce Burnett was generally pleased with what he saw during his annual mid-July crop tour of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[230060,72,237420,61,60],"class_list":["post-561908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-ag-in-motion","tag-business","tag-crop-conditions","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/350511_web1_BJD072414_zebra_mussels-1200x840-150x105.jpg\")