Crop Condition Assessment Program, 2012

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Growing conditions in Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada range from normal to much better than normal, according to new data from Statistics Canada's Crop Condition Assessment Program (CCAP) web application.

Winter cereals are well ahead of normal development, while corn and soybean planting is advanced in some regions.

In Western Canada, conditions are classified as normal to much better than normal across most of Manitoba and southeastern Saskatchewan, as a result of early seeding progress. The remaining Prairie region is classified as normal.

The CCAP is a free web mapping application that provides timely, objective cropland and pasture monitoring information on a weekly basis for Canada's entire agricultural region, along with the northern part of the United States.

The program combines state-of-the-art satellite remote sensing with geographic information systems and dynamic web mapping technologies. It is the longest running near real-time, operational, web-based crop and pasture condition monitoring program in Canadian history.

An additional satellite data source with an improved resolution of 250 metres, implemented in 2010, is available for the 2012 edition of the CCAP.

Satellite imagery is received every Monday afternoon from early April until mid-October. Weekly updates are made to the web application within minutes of receiving the satellite data for near real-time use by the entire agriculture community.

Current conditions are compared with a 25-year normal, allowing easy mapping of areas under stress, such as drought, flooding or frost events. The application includes other products such as thematic maps and data in graph and tabular format for four types of different geography layers, from the census agriculture region to the township level. The entire historical database from 1987 onward is included in the application.

Also included for the Prairie region is an experimental yield forecast for spring wheat, durum wheat, barley and canola that will be updated in late July. These yield forecast models use historical yield estimates and current satellite image data to estimate crop yields in near real time.