Sask. farmers to plant less wheat, more canola

Saskatchewan farmers plan to grow more canola, but less wheat this year, compared to 2009, a survey of seeding plans says.

According to Statistics Canada's March report on seeding intentions, farmers said they planned to plant 4.9 million hectares with winter, spring and durum wheat compared to 5.3 million hectares in 2009, a 7 per cent decrease.

It's expected there will be a lot more canola planted this year, a projected 3.5 million hectares compared to 3.2 million hectares last year, about 9 per cent more.

If farmers follow through on intentions, there will also be more hectares seeded with chick peas, canary seed and lentils, but fewer hectares seeded with barley, oats, dry peas, fall rye and flax.

Meanwhile, low grain prices and the high Canadian dollar are making it difficult for some farmers to decide what to plant.

Saskatoon-area farmer Kevin Friske is considering barley, wheat and canola, but says he's struggling with what to plant.

"It's getting hard, like with the prices of fertilizer and seed and everything. We're running out of stuff to grow," he said.

Saskatoon commodities analyst Larry Weber said many farmers are undecided and the dollar is an issue because grain prices are set in U.S. currency.

"When the dollar goes to par, it hurts farmers in a big way,"Weber said.

"On the reciprocal side of that, it makes it cheaper to import equipment that's made in the United States. However, that does not offset the low grain prices because of the currency."

Farmers expect to put about 1.8 million hectares into summerfallow this year, the StatsCan report says. That's about 7 per cent more than last year.