Who would have thought months after planting another large crop of winter wheat that the province could use more wheat? We have had two strong years of planting Winter Wheat in Ontario with just over 1 million acres last year and approximately 850,000 acres in the ground now. Ontario flour mills grind approximately 2.0 million tones of hard red wheat annually. The majority of the winter wheat planted in Ontario is Soft Red, with some industry guesses as high as 750,000 acres. That puts soft red in an export situation while there is still a huge supply/demand gap to fill in regards to hard red wheat here in Ontario.
Rick Steinke, Risk Manager for ADM Milling Canada, says that Ontario producers are only growing a fraction of the hard red wheat being utilized through the province’s mills. “The qualities of Ontario grown, hard red winter have come a long way,” says Steinke. “Last year the province only planted 45,000 acres of Hard Red Wheat” continues Steinke. “That’s too low – we don’t want acres to get so low that we can’t source our needs here” he finishes. New varieties introduced to the Ontario market in recent years have helped to maintain acceptable protein levels and increase the yield potential of the Hard Red Crop. The quality of Hard Red today has been proving to be excellent and ADM Milling and Parrish and Heimbecker are both looking for more acres.
Synergy Grain Trading Merchandiser Russell McLaughlin is equally as excited about hard wheat production in Ontario. “Ontario mills are not getting enough hard red for their current requirements,” says McLaughlin. “Agricorp numbers are showing reduced shares of the total crop for the last two years, and my customers are looking for more”. Consider looking at Hard Red Winter Wheat this year. It may give you a nice premium kick to add to the bottom line of your wheat acre.
