Most Canadian grain stocks tighter than a year ago

Glacier FarmMedia—For many of Canada’s major crops, their holdings came in lower than a year ago, as Statistics Canada released its stocks of principal field crops as of March 31 report. There were declines in all wheat, durum, oats, corn, lentils and peas, but there were increases for barley and canola while soybeans were relatively steady.

With the report issued on May 7, StatCan found canola stocks were up by more than a million tonnes in total, reaching 8.263 million from last year’s 7.033 million. There were 6.689 million tonnes on the farms compared to last year’s 5.750 million. Commercial stocks rose to 1.574 million tonnes from 1.283 million.

Total barley stocks climbed to 3.058 million tonnes from the 2.768 million the previous March 31. Those on-farm rose to 2.608 million tonnes from 2.210 million and commercially there were 450,000 tonnes this March 31 compared to 559,000 a year ago.

StatCan found all wheat stocks for the end of March were 11.756 million tonnes, down from the 13.901 million a year ago. That saw on-farm stocks pull back to 8.403 million tonnes versus 9.992 million the previous March, while commercial holdings came to 3.353 million tonnes compared to 3.910 million a year ago.

Total durum stocks dropped to 1.651 million tonnes from 2.163 million last March, with 1.071 million in farmers’ bins down from 1.466 million. Commercial stocks declined to 580,000 tonnes from 697,000.

Oats witnessed two significant reductions, with total stocks tumbling to 1.292 million tonnes from 2.634 million a year ago, while on-farm stocks dropped to 954,000 tonnes from 2.266 million. However commercially, oats didn’t change much at 339,000 tonnes compared to the 368,000 a year ago.

The declines in corn saw total stocks pull back to 8.267 million tonnes this past Mar. 31 from 9.075 million last year. On-farm stocks slipped to 5.307 million tonnes from 5.699 million and commercial holdings came to 2.960 million tonnes versus 3.376 million.

Among the pulses, lentils took a hit with total stocks tumbling to 560,000 tonnes from last March’s 950,000, and on-farm stocks dropped to 367,000 tonnes from 738,000. At 193,000 tonnes, commercial stocks didn’t change too much from last year’s 212,000.

Peas also incurred sharp losses, with total stocks falling to 716,000 tonnes from the 1.471 million last March. Those peas in farmers’ granaries dropped to 487,000 tonnes from 1.117 million a year ago, with commercial stocks slipping to 229,000 tonnes compared to 354,000.

Soybeans were virtually unchanged with the latest total holdings at 2.046 million tonnes versus the year ago of 2.064 million, according to StatCan. At 1.153 million tonnes on-farm stocks hardly changed from 1.163 million, while commercial stocks slipped to 893,000 tonnes from 901,000.

— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg