Wheat will account for almost one-third of the 91,000 million acres Canadian farmers will plant this spring.
Farmers will seed 25.4 million acres of wheat, according to the Statistics Canada estimate of seeding intentions. That planting is up 3.3 per cent.
Saskatchewan farmers will seed 13.2 million acres in wheat for a 2.5 per cent increase.
The agency notes an unusually low rate of responses to the annual survey of farmers.
Wheat has dethroned canola as the king crop. Canola acreage will decline 1.6 per cent to 20.6 million acres — the smallest acreage in three years
In this province, canola acres will drop 2.3 per cent to 11.3 million.
Club root concerns and longer rotations between canola crops and lost Chinese markets account for the acres cut.
Within wheat acres, 18.87 million acres of spring wheat is about the same as last year.
Durum acres, responding to higher prices, increase 6.8 per cent to 5.22 million while winter wheat increased 53 per cent to 1.43 million acres.
Lentils decline 74,000 acres for a nearly two per cent drop while dry peas fall 54,000 acres for a 1.2 per cent cut in acres.
Chickpea acres fall 35 per cent to 324,000.
Among cereals, barley acreage declines 2.1 per cent to 7.25 million; rye increases 34 per cent to 402,000 acres and oats jumps 6.3 per cent to 3.83 million acres.
Mustard seed loses 4,000 acres to 395,000 while flax gains 5,000 acres to 942,000.
Canary seed acres are up 7.7 per cent to 276,000 acres. Sunflowers gain 37 per cent to 104,000 acres.
For the first time in years, summer fallow will increase. Farmers will let 2.1 million acres lie fallow, an increase of 22 per cent over last year.
Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
