The weather and crop specialist with CWB says this year's disappointing winter wheat crop has impacted planting intentions for next year.
"We're estimating right now that the winter wheat area has dropped about 20 per cent across the prairies this fall," said Bruce Burnett. "It's a combination of the poor results last year, in terms of the quality side, but also because of this late harvest, late fall that we've had in a lot of areas."
He notes there were expectations earlier in the year that acres would actually increase due to flooded areas in eastern Saskatchewan and western Manitoba. However, that did not materialize due to more adverse weather this fall.
Burnett adds more snow cover will be needed to protect the winter wheat crop from winterkill as the temperature continues to drop.