Principal field crop areas, 2023
Released: 2023-04-26
Canadian farmers expect to plant more wheat, canola, corn for grain, barley and soybeans in 2023, while area seeded to oats, lentils and dry peas is anticipated to decrease compared with the previous year.
Given the intention of farmers to plant a greater area of wheat, canola, corn for grain and soybeans, there is an expected increase in seeded area for grains and oilseeds, while pulse and special crops are anticipated to decrease.
Wheat
At the national level, farmers anticipate planting 27.0 million acres of wheat in 2023, up 6.2% from the previous year. Spring wheat area (+7.5% to 19.4 million acres), durum wheat area (+0.9% to 6.1 million acres) and winter wheat area (+12.7% to 1.5 million acres) are all expected to increase. If realized, national wheat area would be the highest it has been in more than two decades. An anticipated increase in area for wheat is possibly attributable to favourable prices and strong demand.
Farmers in Saskatchewan anticipate planting 7.3% more wheat in 2023, totalling 14.2 million acres. Spring wheat area is expected to expand 10.2% to 9.2 million acres, while durum wheat area is anticipated to increase 2.9% to 5.0 million acres.
In Alberta, farmers expect total wheat area to increase 4.2% to 8.0 million acres because of higher spring wheat area (+5.9% to 6.8 million acres), while durum wheat area is expected to decrease 5.4% to 1.0 million acres.
Manitoba farmers anticipate planting 3.2 million acres of wheat, up 3.3% from one year earlier.
Canola
Canola area is expected to edge up 0.9% to 21.6 million acres in 2023, roughly in line with the five-year average.
In Saskatchewan, the province that produces the most canola, producers anticipate seeded area of canola to increase 3.7% to 11.8 million acres.
In Alberta, farmers expect seeded area of canola to decrease 2.6% to 6.4 million acres.
Farmers in Manitoba anticipate seeding 3.3 million acres of canola, down 0.9% from the previous year.
Soybeans
Nationally, farmers anticipate planting 5.5 million acres of soybeans, up 4.5% from 2022.
Farmers in Ontario, the province that produces the most soybeans, expect to plant 2.9 million acres of soybeans, down 5.4% from 2022.
Manitoba is expected to lead the national increase in soybean acreage. Soybean area in the province is expected to rise 37.3% to 1.6 million acres, the highest area in the province since 2018.
In Quebec, soybean seeded area is expected to decrease 4.8% to 910,400 acres.
Barley and oats
Nationwide, barley acreage is expected to edge up 0.6% to 7.1 million acres in 2023.
Barley area is expected to decrease in Saskatchewan (-4.7% to 2.6 million acres) and Manitoba (-14.4% to 362,700 acres), while it is expected to increase in Alberta (+7.3% to 3.8 million acres).
Oat area is expected to fall 22.4% to 3.1 million acres compared with one year earlier, possibly because of high oat stocks resulting from high production in 2022.
Corn for grain
At the national level, farmers expect to plant 3.7 million acres of corn for grain, up 2.8% from one year earlier.
In Ontario, where over 60% of all corn for grain in Canada is grown, farmers anticipate planting 2.3 million acres, up 0.2% from 2022. If this occurs, it would be a record area for the province, surpassing the previous record set in 2022.
Quebec farmers expect to plant more corn for grain, rising 3.1% to 920,200 acres in 2023.
Lentil and dry pea
Area seeded to lentils is expected to decrease compared with one year earlier, falling 8.0% to 4.0 million acres. Farmers in Saskatchewan, where almost 90% of Canada's lentils are grown, expect seeded area to fall 7.7% to 3.5 million acres, while lentil area in Alberta is expected to decrease 10.5% to 492,600 acres.
Farmers across Canada expect to plant fewer acres of dry peas in 2023, with area anticipated to fall 4.6% to 3.2 million acres compared with 2022.
Note to readers
The 2022 Field Crop Survey – December, which collects information on stocks of principal field crops and seeding intentions, was conducted from December 12, 2022, to January 14, 2023, and included about 9,500 farmers. Respondents were asked to report their planting intentions for grains, oilseeds and special crops. This was the first time seeding intentions were collected in December. Traditionally, seeding intentions have been collected in March. This change is part of the ongoing AgZero initiative within the Agriculture Division at Statistics Canada, which aims to assess the feasibility of using alternative methods to produce quality estimates.
Subsequent surveys during the year will provide estimates of actual seeded acreages. Data on final acreages for 2023 will be released on December 4, 2023, and will be subject to revision for two years.
Field crop surveys collect data from Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta at all survey cycles. However, they collect data twice a year (in the June iteration of the Field Crop Survey on seeded areas and in the November iteration of the Field Crop Survey on final production) for Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and British Columbia, which represent between 2% and 4% of national totals. Therefore, Canadian totals for March include carry-over data for these provinces from their preceding November survey. Canadian totals for July include carry-over data for seeded area for all provinces from their preceding June survey.
Data on anticipated seeded areas may differ from data on actual seeded area to be released in June.
Release calendar: The dates for upcoming releases of stocks, areas and production of principal field crops are available online.
In this release, percentage changes are calculated using unrounded data.
For the latest information on the Census of Agriculture, visit the Census of Agriculture portal.
For more information on agriculture and food, visit the Agriculture and food statistics portal.
Data for March 2023 are compared with final 2022 data.
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 (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
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