USDA forecast: Canada soy area shrinks, production reaches new record

In its May 12 estimate, USDA forecast 2015/16 Canada soybean production at 6.20 million metric tons, up nearly 2.50 percent from 2014, and a new record. Yield is forecast to reach 2.88 tons per hectare, up 6.52 percent from last year and in line with trend. Soybean area is forecast to contract by 4 percent from a year ago and harvested area is expected at 2.150 million hectares.

 

Statistics Canada’s Principal Field Crop Areas March 2015, released April 23, 2015, reported that farmers were expected to seed 2.175 million hectares of soybeans, down nearly 3.4 percent from the previous year. This 3.4-percent drop is attributed to crop rotation. Ontario and Quebec, which together account for roughly 70 percent of total production, are expected to reduce seeded area by 6 and 10 percent, respectively, from last year. In Manitoba, however, area seeded continues to expand, up 2 percent from last year.

 

Successful breeding efforts to produce high yielding, short season varieties in the 1970s made it possible to expand soybean production beyond Ontario. In the last 5 years, soybean production has grown about 23 percent across Ontario, Manitoba, Quebec, and Saskatchewan. Manitoba is now the second largest soybean producer in Canada and contributes roughly 25 percent of total soybean production.