Crop Condition Assessment Program, June 2015

Released: 2015-06-03

Seeding progress across the Prairies is well ahead of normal according to provincial crop reports, however, cool night temperatures and lack of rain is slowing crop development. Lack of precipitation combined with above-normal temperatures has affected crop development in Ontario. Temperatures have been favourable for Quebec, but drier conditions than normal have delayed crop development.

Below normal crop development is evident across most of the agricultural region of Canada when comparing the May 25 to 31 satellite Normalized Difference Vegetation Index composite with the normal.

The weekly satellite images at the start of the 2015 growing season have been processed and are now available on the Crop Condition Assessment Program (CCAP) website.

In addition, the 2015 mean value of the one-kilometre resolution satellite picture elements within each of the census agriculture regions or census consolidated subdivisions of Canada that contains pasture and/or cropping activity is now available on CANSIM. The inter-annual weekly reference period is from mid-April to mid-October.

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 using satellite data in Canadian history.

An additional satellite data source with an improved resolution of 250 metres, implemented in 2010, is also available for the 2015 edition of the CCAP.

Satellite imagery is received every Monday 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 28-year normal, allowing easy mapping of areas under stress, such as drought, flooding or frost events. The web application includes other features 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.

The publication Crop Condition Assessment Program, 2015 (Catalogue number22-205-X), is now available from the Browse by key resource module of our website under Publications.

Click on the link to access the web application.

Contact information

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (613-951-4636; statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@canada.ca).