Canadian oats output impacted by excessive moisture

Excessive moisture in Western Canada definitely had a negative impact on oat acreage and will have severely hurt yield potential, but it will probably take another month or two before the industry gets a real handle on actual damage, according to industry sources.

Canadas 2010-11 oat output in Agriculture and Agri-Food Canadas May supply/demand report had been pegged at 3.200 million tonnes, which would have been up from the 2009-10 level of 2.798 million.

Statistics Canada in its March seeding intentions report had pegged 2010 seeded area to oats in Canada at 3.992 million acres compared with 3.731 million in 2009. With the wet conditions across Western Canada, private industry estimates have oats seeded area in Canada now ranging from a low of 2.8 million to around 3.5 million acres.