Leduc, a fourth-generation producer who grows more than 10,000 acres of wheat, durum, mustard, canola, peas and lentils in an area dominated by grazing cattle, thinks that the long-awaited technological improvement, a plant that produces canola-like oil, could help him eke out a few more dollars per acre.

“All I’m trying to do is improve the bottom line of our farm,” he said.

WHY IT MATTERS: Mustard growers worry BASF’s InVigor Gold hybrid will destroy Canada’s condiment mustard industry. BASF says the oilseed could be grown safely in arid regions where canola routinely fails.

But Trent Dewar, who farms elsewhere in the Canadian semi-desert known as Palliser’s Triangle, fears the new GMO mustard plant will ruin the pure mustard he grows for the premium Dijon bottlers in France, the United States and Japan, as well as other specialty mustards. The industry is worth about $150 million (C$209 million) in exports annually — only a fraction of the $8.9 billion (C$12.4 billion) canola exports market. But in a geography where canola fails more often than it flourishes, mustard has been the lifeblood of many farms since growers started planting it 90 years ago.

“Everybody I’ve talked to personally is quite shell-shocked that this would even be considered,” he said.

Mustard is a tiny crop in Canada, with usually less than 200,000 metric tons of mustard produced by a few hundred farmers. Mustard production soars and sags with volatile world prices and local weather, like other specialty crops. Canadian canola growers, by contrast, usually plant more than 20 million acres of their crop, which produces upwards of 19 million metric tons. That makes canola Canada’s biggest source of crop income by far.

That’s why so many are excited about the drought-resistant GMO mustard plant. Global agricultural giant BASF hopes to win approval from Canadian and U.S. agencies for commercialization as soon as next year in the U.S. and a couple of years later in Canada.

It’s not without risk, however. The GMO plant looks nearly identical to a traditional mustard plant. Neighboring fields could be contaminated with seeds and pollen carried on the wind or by bees. Both traditional brown and oriental mustards and the new mustard canola are brassica junceas, so they can breed, with pollen from one type fertilizing the other.

“It has the potential of wrecking a whole industry,” said farmer Norm Hall, the chair of SaskMustard, which represents Saskatchewan’s mustard growers. The group is lobbying the government in Ottawa to keep the crop out of Canada.

Brent Collins, head of BASF’s seeds and traits division in Canada, said the crop was an “innovation” that would “truly unlock new canola acres, helping meet market demand.”

The French connection

France, which sources about half its mustard supplies from Canada, has a strict non-GMO standard. Other large global buyers are similarly stringent. Many Canadian mustard growers and sellers fear the door could slam shut if traces of the hybrid mustard-canola were detected.

“They look at it like a razor blade that shows up in a bag of rice,” said Peter Gorski of Broadgrain, a company that sells Canadian specialty crops like mustard to buyers around the world.

Foreign buyers have not said how they will respond if GMO traces appear. Most contracts contain a commitment to be non-GMO, and two contracts shared with Reuters contained that specification. A French law limits the presence of GMOs in the food supply, but the threshold of acceptable traces is mostly left to the buyer.

Christophe Planes, sales and marketing director for French mustard processor Reine de Dijon, said the GMO plant could spell trouble for Canadian exports.

About half of the company’s seeds are sourced from Canada, he said, adding: “We’re clearly committed to a non-GMO policy.”

“Since France is quite strict regarding GMOs we systematically check all our supplies to ensure that there are no traces, or very few traces,” Planes said.

Since Canada’s crippling drought of 2021, which hampered mustard production and triggered panic in French shoppers finding grocery store shelves bare of the condiment, France has boosted its own domestic supplies. There are other sources for mustard seed, such as Argentina, Germany and Ukraine, but Canadian mustard is both high quality and cheap, Planes said. Switching could affect quality and raise prices.

A flax grower’s nightmare, revisited

Canadian mustard growers are haunted by a historical precedent: tainted flax. Canada lost a well-paying and steady European market for flax when traces of a GMO variety called Triffid were found in European food products in 2009. Exports plunged and never recovered.

Mustard is an ancient crop, its seeds found in stone-age settlements of the Near East, in ancient Sumerian texts, and even in the tomb of Egypt’s Pharaoh Tutankhamun. In the Bible, Jesus of Nazareth told a parable about the mustard seed.

By contrast, the mustard-canola hybrid is a 21st-century scientific marvel, employing decades of traditional plant breeding and later GMO methods to produce a mustard plant that produces a version of canola oil, and that survives a herbicide controlling the plague of tumbleweeds in western North America. Many farmers in the mustard-growing region have been eagerly awaiting this new crop since the 1990s, but it has been a tortuous scientific development process. Canola is a cool-weather crop that thrives in northern latitudes like Canada, but climate change’s bouts of extreme heat and drought are expected to make it more challenging to grow.

Some of the original research into using a mustard plant to produce canola-like seed was done by scientists working for a farmers’ cooperative in the 1990s, as well as by university researchers. Now global agriculture giant BASF has brought what it calls InVigor Gold to the cusp of commercialization.

Traditional clashes with bold and new

From discussions with mustard and canola industry key players, it is clear that the two camps have sharply different assessments of whether the GMO mustard can flourish alongside traditional mustard.

“We know we can’t co-exist,” said Rick Mitzel, executive director of Sask Mustard.

BASF, however, thinks two million acres of its mustard-canola could be grown in arid areas of Canada and the U.S., with safeguards against pollen flow and seed spread between mustard and canola fields.

“We understand the areas that mustard growers are concerned about and it’s our responsibility to be able to explain what exactly we’re doing to be able to appease some of these concerns,” said Collins.

The two sides have sporadically met in recent years, but as the widespread release of the crop approaches, mustard growers and the mustard industry have grown desperate.

At an industry meeting this winter, mustard growers and merchants called for their representatives to take legal and political action to block the introduction of InVigor Gold. But Hall told them it would be an “uphill battle” because BASF is following the usual crop development protocols, and market impact is not considered during the Canadian crop approval processes.

Kacy Gehring of Mountain States Oilseeds, a U.S. mustard merchant in American Falls, Idaho, said the concern about GMO contamination destroying markets could trigger farmers to just stop growing mustard. That wouldn’t just be a problem for companies like hers, but also bad for world culinary culture, she said.

Farmer Leduc understands the worries of his mustard-growing neighbors, but doesn’t apologize for wanting to get InVigor Gold into his fields as soon as possible. Farming in an arid region isn’t easy, but it’s where his great-grandfather settled. He needs every survival tool he can get.

“I wish I was in a wetter part of the province,” he said.

— Additional reporting by Sybille de la Hamaide and Gus Trompiz in France.

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Up a penny, down a penny

“Oriental (mustard) dropped a little bit in the last few days, less than one per cent,” said Hall, who farms near Wynyard, Sask. “They’re just moving around a little bit here and there, up a cent or down a cent per pound.”

Prairie Ag Hotwire reported that as of Feb, yellow mustard tacked on one cent at 40 to 42 cents/lb. delivered. Oriental was up a penny as well at 46 to 47 cents/lb. while brown was down a penny at 31 to 35 cents.

Hall said Saskatchewan farmers are still dealing with a large harvest from 2024.

Nearly 140,000 tonnes harvested

Statistics Canada placed mustard production for that year at 192,300 tonnes, followed by this year’s crop of 139,800 tonnes. In Saskatchewan, mustard growers gleaned around 89,700 tonnes, down from 136,100 the previous year. Alberta is the only other province that produces enough reportable amounts of the oilseed.

“The majority of Saskatchewan mustard is grown in the Palliser Triangle,” Hall said. “Depending on when (farmers) seeded … there were some rains that the later crops benefited from. They got some handsome yields. Then there were others who got virtually nothing.”

Hall cited a private report that deemed this year’s mustard crop to be average overall.

With StatCan production figures, the five-year average for the total mustard output is a little more than 137,000 tonnes and about 98,000 tonnes for Saskatchewan.

Looking for more planted area

As spring approaches, Hall is hopeful that mustard prices climb higher as that should lead to more planted area.

In Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s January supply and demand estimates, its initial mustard projection for planted area was 175,000 hectares in 2026/27 compared to 146,200 this year. AAFC predicted harvested area to be 170,000 hectares versus 144,700 in 2025/26. However, the agency forecast the yield to drop from 0.97 t/ha. down to 0.79 t/ha.

AAFC estimated next year’s mustard exports to hold at 95,000 tonnes and domestic use to bump up to 54,000 tonnes. Ending stocks are to step back from 145,000 tonnes to 140,000.

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They don’t know if they can stop it, but they do aim to try.

“We know at the end of the day it’s going to destroy the condiment mustard industry in Canada, that that’ll be the end of it,” said Rick Mitzel, chief executive officer of Mustard 21 and executive director of SaskMustard.

Industry has been meeting with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Agriculture Canada and BASF, which announced last June it was going to introduce the crop in the United States in 2027 and in Canada a couple of years later.

WHY IT MATTERS: InVigor Gold is a genetically modified LibertyLink-resistant crop, which the European market won’t accept. Although BASF has called it a yellow canola, it is actually a brassica juncea, or from the mustard family, and not brassica napus, which is the canola grown in Western Canada.

Sask Mustard officially opposes the introduction of InVigorGold.

In December, it issued a news release and letter to producers to draw attention to what it called a critical threat from the crop. Saskatchewan supplies about 80 per cent of Canada’s mustard and 50 per cent of global supply.

Sask Mustard, Mustard 21 and the Canadian Mustard Association strongly disagree with BASF’s assertion the technology won’t negatively affect mustard producers, they said.

“The introduction of a GM B. juncea crop threatens to irreversibly contaminate Canada’s non-GM mustard supply through expected gene flow within a single species,” they said.

“This would destroy the trust we have built with international buyers, particularly in the European Union and Japan, who rely on the guaranteed non-GM status of Canadian mustard seed.”

French’s and France

In an interview, Mitzel said the next step is to consult with companies such as McCormick and others to gain their support.

In December he went to France to meet with four major processors that control about 80 per cent of the mustard in Europe. Some of them attended the recent mustard meetings online and are planning a trip to Saskatchewan this summer.

“They’re very concerned about it,” Mitzel said.

“They don’t want to lose the Canadian supply because it’s such high quality. They did tell me that 50 per cent of the mustard they buy comes from Canada. They’re not backing down on GMOs.”

The French would be faced with buying lower-quality crop from competitors such as Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan if Canada couldn’t guarantee GMO-free. That would cause milling issues, Mitzel said.

During the meeting, Kacy Gehring from Mountain States Oilseeds said U.S. farmers are also concerned. The first effects of possible contamination will be seen there and could limit their markets.

She asked if pressure from U.S. signatories would help the Canadian cause.

Others at the meeting likened their fight to a “David and Goliath” situation and wondered how they could possibly take on a huge company with far more money and people. They noted the similarity to when Triffid flax appeared years after the GM variety had been discontinued, resulting in expensive testing.

Howard Love, crop breeder for Mustard 21, said the crop is “absolutely not” canola. He discussed the science behind InVigor Gold’s development and how contamination could occur.

Contamination won’t be a problem in year one but will take a few years to develop, he said.

‘The right reasons’

In Canada, BASF would be targeting the brown soil zone where about 80 per cent of Saskatchewan mustard is grown, said Sask Mustard chair Norm Hall. Cross-pollination is a huge concern.

CMA chair Dave Macfarlane said his members see the threat based on Triffid and also from a 2009 finding of GM canola in European mustard. That incident led to testing as well.

He said the industry doesn’t know if the EU would allow similar testing protocols if InVigor Gold is approved.

Some growers asked what support they have from oilseed producers. Mitzel said the Canola Council of Canada appears “very much on side with what BASF is doing. They feel they need this product to continue to grow canola.”

During the SaskOilseeds meeting, chair Dean Roberts said his organization does not have an official position.

“Right now we’re gathering as much information as we can,” he said.

He said they have to be aware of what it means to come out against an innovation, particularly when a company is willing to invest in research and development.

“If we were to say no, we want to be sure we’re saying no for the right reasons, but we also want to be aware of the impacts those decisions could have on other markets,” he said.

“One hundred per cent, we’ve got our eye on it.”

The mustard industry is pinning its hopes on the CFIA and its regulatory process. Although often seen as burdensome, both Mitzel and Macfarlane said in this case that system is their best bet to save their sector.

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Ellis, 38, a fourth-generation farmer in Wawanesa, Manitoba, credits investments in pricey systems including minimum and zero-till farming which help protect soil; tile drainage, an underground system to prevent flooding; slow-release fertilizer pellets which are more effective, and advice from a professional agronomist on weedkillers.

“We are constantly making little tweaks,” he said. “That’s how we’re going to be able to keep fighting the changing climate.”

Across much of western Canada, farmers like Ellis have been turning out strikingly better crops despite hotter and drier conditions — far above what farmers in the region could have expected in better conditions years ago, according to Canadian government data, thanks in part to widespread embrace of climate adaptation strategies.

While greater yields in Canada and elsewhere are depressing global prices for grains, they are keeping many farmers in business.

Record harvests despite drought

Adaptation practices – which tend to be costly and require cutting edge technologies – have enabled many farmers to ride out a drought that began in 2020.

Earlier this month, the Canadian government announced record harvests of spring wheat and canola for 2025. And because most of the grains produced in Canada are shipped and consumed abroad, those gains have major implications for the rest of the world’s ability to feed itself affordably.

Australia, another large global grain exporter, has also reported rising crop yields despite drier conditions.

This combination of methods and technology is not just helping Canadian growers keep up with climate change, but stay ahead of its ravages, according to interviews with 25 farmers, scientists and agriculture industry leaders, and a review of more than a dozen academic papers.

Spring wheat, used to make high-quality bread, yielded 58.8 bushels per acre this year, according to the government data release. That’s a gain of 77 per cent from 30 years ago, based on a three-year average. Canola yields nearly doubled, reaching 44.7 bushels per acre, also based on a 1994-1996 average.

While most climate science paints a bleak picture for global food supply, with a study in Nature this year forecasting up to 40 per cent reduction in North America’s wheat harvest by 2100, the agricultural experts Reuters interviewed said that with climate adaptation strategies the Prairies can continue to produce bigger and bigger crops in the future.

“Back in the day, 30, 35 bushels an acre (for wheat) would have been a bumper crop,” said Rob Saik, a Canadian agronomist who has consulted with governments all over the world. “Now it’s an abject failure.”

A notoriously difficult region

Even before climate change brought more unpredictable and extreme weather, western Canada was a notoriously difficult region to farm.

The central Prairies, a land of green and golden short grasses and thin, scrubby brush, get only about half as much rainfall as Iowa, and have a much shorter growing season. Climate change has made it even harder. Environment and Climate Change Canada says the country is warming at double the global average and that extreme events have become more common. On the Prairies, annual snowfall, a key source of spring moisture, has declined and summer extremes of rain and drought have increased, with rain often coming in enormous torrents, or not at all.

“Extreme events, like floods, heatwaves, wildfires, and severe storms, are increasingly damaging to our economy, ecosystems and built environment,” the federal department said in a 2024 report.

Incremental gains, not miracles

Scientists and agronomists say Canada’s gains don’t come from a single, dramatic factor, but from steady, incremental progress with farming methods and inputs.

Many seeds now come stacked with insect, disease and weed resistance, thanks to conventional breeding as well as genetic modification. Fertilizer application is designed to minimize disturbance to the soil surface by being placed at the same time as the seed goes in.

Fungicides, weedkillers and nutrients allow crops to outcompete their natural enemies.

Some of the strategies recall pre-industrial practices, such as intercropping, growing multiple crops at the same time.

Experts also credit automation such as self-guiding tractors that apply fertilizer at different rates based on soil tests and satellite mapping.

One family’s adaptation evolution

The Mowbray family ventured into adaptive practices four decades ago with tile drainage, laying a small stretch of perforated pipe designed to take the water down into the soil rather than spread it across the surface.

Over the last 12 years, Scott Mowbray, 46, has expanded the drainage system to about 800 acres of his land.

Meanwhile, the Mowbrays gradually took up minimum till. By 2010, the 2,000-acre farm was entirely no-till, leaving the soil unplowed and with stubble standing as a moisture trap and a barrier against the wind that otherwise carries the topsoil away.

The innovations allow the Mowbrays to “pull off yields twice what we used to with half as much rain,” Mowbray said, producing “incredible” volumes of spring wheat, peas and rye.

Technology’s steep price tag

Much of what has allowed Canadian farmers to deal with climate change involves expensive and complex equipment. A smart combine costs upwards of $1 million. A high-speed-data-enabled tractor and seeding drill cost around $2 million.

Kip Eideberg, senior vice president of government and industry relations for the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, which represents John Deere DE , Case New Holland CNH and other manufacturers, said precision systems have saved Canadian farmers nine per cent in herbicide and pesticides, six per cent in fuel, and four per cent in water use. That saves money for farmers operating on razor-thin margins, he said.

Most large-scale farmers have access to such technology in their tractors, combines, sprayers and management computers, Terry Griffin, a Kansas State University agricultural economist, said. But an older generation of farmers often doesn’t want to take on digital challenges, while younger farmers don’t have the money for machines or agronomic advice.

One obstacle to greater adoption is rural broadband access. Mowbray can’t count on being able to run a constant stream of data from his big farm machines. He can’t even call his farmhouse from his cellphone. His farm relies on two-way radios instead.

“It’s a simple thing but hugely important when you are in the field and might need a pick-up but can’t get a call through to the house,” he said.

Seed science – the invisible factor

Another equally important factor for farmers’ gains: breeding genetically superior crops that are hardier, drought-tolerant and produce bigger yields.

“We’re just starting down that path,” said Rick Mitzel, CEO of farmer-and-industry-funded mustard seed development organization Mustard 21. The company is developing drought-tolerant plants as an alternative to canola. The varieties “come out of the ground quicker, develop roots quicker, get leafing faster,” Mitzel told Reuters in an interview.

The farmer-controlled South East Research Farm in Redvers, Saskatchewan has been testing crops such as camelina, which is most likely to be planted in Canada for sustainable aviation fuel, that could offer farmers better yields and more resilience.

Executive director Lana Shaw doesn’t think climate change will happen without losses to the Canadian farm community. Some farmers will choose to not adapt and will simply retire. Some will adapt and fail. And some farmers will adapt and thrive.

“Under pressure,” she said, “they can adapt very fast.”

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G.S. Dunn Ltd. is investing approximately $30 million to expand its 22-acre mustard milling facility, aided by a $3.1 million Agri-Processing Investment Tax Credit from the Alberta government.

The facility brings in mustard seed from farmers, packages it for sale and sends it to 110 countries.

“The Alberta tax credit allowed us to add the milling operation to our facility where it did not exist before,” David Shields, plant manager for G.S. Dunn’s Bow Island operations, said in a video announcing the investment.

“Now, we are able to mill our products here in Alberta, closer to the source where it is growing. The process was very smooth. Working with the government, it helped us navigate some of the regulatory aspects of it. It helped us with our increase in the workforce and the ability to accommodate the staff here, with our infrastructure.”

The project has created 34 new jobs, and the expansion will also increase the facility’s purchasing power of raw mustard seed from $13 million to $44 million, with all seed coming from 300 rotated producers in southern Alberta and Saskatchewan.

The Bow Island expansion is the second phase of G.S. Dunn’s value-added mustard milling project. Since its initial expansion into Alberta, the company has increased capacity by more than 200 per cent. The current phase has increased processing capacity by approximately 70 per cent compared to pre-expansion levels.

The APITC program provides a 12 per cent non-refundable, non-transferable tax credit when businesses invest $10 million or more in a project to build or expand a value-added agri-processing facility in Alberta.

The program is open to any food manufacturers and bioprocessors that add value to commodities such as grain or meat or turn agricultural byproducts into new consumer or industrial goods. Up to $175 million in tax credits is available for each project.

G.S. Dunn has more than 150 years of experience and provides more than 250 value-added milled mustard products, making it the largest supplier in the world.

The company was set up by the British businessman of the same name, who opened his first Canadian mustard mill at Hamilton in 1867. Its Prairie seed procurement and cleaning operation was set up at the former Spitz sunflower seed plant at Bow Island in 2019.

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The province’s harvest was 68 per cent complete, Saskatchewan’s weekly crop report said on Sept. 25. This was compared to the five-year average of 83 per cent and the 10-year average of 72 per cent.

Harvest progress in the southwest led all regions at 80 per cent complete, followed by the southeast at 70 per cent, the northwest at 69 per cent, the west-central region at 65 per cent, the northeast at 61 per cent and the east-central region at 59 per cent.

While Saskatchewan’s winter wheat and fall rye harvest was finished, field peas were at 99 per cent completion and lentils were 96 per cent combined. Barley was at 86 per cent, durum at 78 per cent, spring wheat at 73 per cent and oats at 70 per cent. However, due to rains and high humidity, some yet-to-be-harvested cereal crops showed low quality and sprouting.

The mustard harvest was 62 per cent complete, followed by canola at 42 per cent, soybeans at 23 per cent and flax at 18 per cent.

The most rain fell in the Rhein area east of Yorkton at 44 millimetres during the week. Meanwhile, Carnduff and Blaine Lake saw 20 mm and the Calder area received 18 mm.

Cropland topsoil moisture was at two per cent surplus, 59 per cent adequate, 32 per cent short and seven per cent very short. Hayland topsoil conditions were three per cent surplus, 51 per cent adequate, 29 per cent short and 17 per cent very short. Pasture topsoil conditions were two per cent surplus, 40 per cent adequate, 36 per cent short and 22 per cent very short.

As for pastures, one per cent were in excellent condition, 31 per cent in good condition, 39 per cent in fair condition, 20 per cent in poor condition and nine per cent in very poor condition.

Most of the crop damage reported was caused by wind and dry conditions. There were also some reports of low-lying areas being lost to water accumulation. Waterfowl damage was more present this week as geese, cranes and other waterfowl moved across the province.

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Even a trace of the wrong crop can cause major problems in export markets, warned Keep it Clean in a recent update.

Keep it Clean is joint initiative of the Canola Council of Canada, Cereals Canada, Pulse Canada and the Prairie Oat Growers Association. The organization provides farmers and crop advisers with timely updates on potential market risks and practical resources to help ensure crops meet the standards of both domestic and international customers.

“Maintaining a reputation for clean, safe grain is crucial for both domestic and international markets,” Keep it Clean noted in the update. “Contaminated shipments can lead to costly rejections, recalls and damage to market confidence.”

Mustard, soybeans and especially buckwheat are flagged as concerns. Buckwheat is considered highly allergenic, and if it slips into a wheat, barley or oat shipment, it can trigger severe reactions and significant trade consequences.

“The unintentional mingling of these allergenic grains with cereal crops can pose a significant risk to consumer health and market access,” the update said.

To reduce risk, Keep it Clean advises farmers to:

• Thoroughly clean combines, grain carts, trucks and bins if allergenic crops were harvested earlier.
• Store allergenic and non-allergenic crops separately, and ensure trucks and railcars are free from residue before loading cereals.
• Keep records of rotations, bin use and cleaning, and share details with buyers.

Keep it Clean stresses that simple steps on the farm can help safeguard consumers and Canada’s reputation as a reliable grain supplier.

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Only 10.8 per cent of Alberta’s crops have come off the ground, according to the province’s weekly crop report. By comparison, the five-year average at this time was 14.7 per cent.

Fall rye and winter wheat harvests are near complete at 91.2 and 88.3 per cent, respectively. Lentils were at 62.3 per cent completion while dry peas were at 49.6 per cent. Durum was at 19.7 per cent, followed by chickpeas (16.5 per cent), barley (11 per cent), mustard (10.4 per cent), spring wheat (6.3 per cent), oats (3.7 per cent), canola (0.4 per cent) and mixed grain (0.1 per cent).

Provincial crop conditions were rated at 65 per cent good to excellent, with the five-year average at 50 per cent. The central region had the highest proportion of all crops rated as good to excellent condition at 93 per cent, followed by the northwest at 70 per cent, the south at 65 per cent, the northeast at 61 per cent and the Peace region at 27 per cent.

Copious amounts of moisture throughout the summer significantly aided crop yields. Alberta’s five-year dryland yield index was 118.6, or 18.6 per cent higher yield than the five-year average. The central region fared the best at 144.5, while the Peace region was the worst at 94.5. Oats had the highest yields at 71.8 bushels per acre, followed by barley (69.1), spring wheat (50.6), dry peas (47) and canola (39.7).

Alberta surface soil moisture was rated at 56.6 per cent good to excellent provincewide, 13 points above the five-year average. The central region was in the best condition at 81.1 per cent, while the south region was in the worst condition at 44 per cent, down nine points from the previous week.

Provincial sub-surface was rated 54 per cent good to excellent, above the five-year average of 42 per cent. Regional sub-surface soil moisture ranged from 81 per cent for the central region to 37(+1) per cent for the northwest.

Alberta tame hay growth was rated at 44 per cent good to excellent. Regional ratings were from 77 per cent in the central region (32 points ahead of the five-year average) to 20 per cent in the northeast (down 18 points). With warm temperatures, second cut of dryland hay is ongoing with 21 per cent of second cut complete compared to the five-year average of 28 per cent for this week. Second cut yields were estimated at 1.3 tons per acre, ahead of the five-year average of one ton/ac.

Provincial pasture conditions were 54 per cent good to excellent, ranging from 84.7 per cent in the central region to 27.1 per cent in the northeast.

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The federal agency issued its principal field crop area report on June 27, estimating farmers planted nearly 21.46 million acres of canola. That’s a dip of almost 0.9 per cent from its March estimate, down 2.5 per cent of what was sown in 2024/25, and about 1.2 per cent under the five-year average.

There was a feeling in the trade that more canola would be planted due to an upswing in canola prices, but StatCan noted concerns about the growing conditions on the Prairies and especially ongoing trade issues are possibly reasons why there’s a dip in canola acres.

Also, StatCan revised its estimate on 2024/25 canola production, raising it from 17.4 million tonnes to now 19.2 million.

Meanwhile, StatCan’s call on flax acres did an about face with the agency now saying more was seeded in 2025/26 rather than less. StatCan placed flax acres just short of 620,000 compared to the 448,000 estimated in March and the 503,000 planted last year.

Mustard as well had a turnaround, up 19.6 per cent from March, but at almost 360,000 acres it will still be well short of 606,000 sown a year ago.

As for all wheat, at 26.93 million acres StatCan said slightly more was planted this year than the 26.65 million previous year. However, the latest call is down two per cent from March.

Spring wheat acres of almost 18.81 million are down 3.2 per cent from earlier but a pinch below the 18.94 million planted last year.

Those for durum are up 2.5 per cent from March at 6.53 million, and 2.6 per cent more from 2024/25.

Winter wheat acres increased to 1.58 million from 1.34 million last year.

1 acre = 0.405 hectares

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Statistics Canada reported in March that projected planted acres for the seed this year in the province is to be 212,000, a far cry from the 409,700 acres planted in 2024. Supply won’t be an issue as the 2024-25 carryout is expected to be 150,000 tonnes, compared to 88,000 in 2023-24.

The 212,000 acres of Saskatchewan mustard would be the third-lowest seeded area this decade, but Rick Mitzel, executive director of SaskMustard said it’s likely there could be even fewer acres seeded this spring due to dry conditions.

“Initially, (growers) started off with OK moisture because of the amount of snowfall that was there in the winter,” Mitzel said. “But as we moved to spring, the warmer weather moved in and the wind picked up and dried things out very quickly on us. I think we did have some growers switch to other crops that can seed deeper and get into the moisture.

“If growers were thinking about 290,000 to 300,000 acres (nationally), it’s a (very good) chance it’ll be less than that. Maybe as low as 250,000.”

The high-delivered bids for mustard on the Prairies were 46 cents per pound for yellow and 35 cents for the brown and Oriental varieties. All of them are down eight cents/lb. from the previous year as of May 28, Prairie Ag Hotwire reported.

Current market prices for mustard are “kind of common” compared to past years, Mitzel added. However, he believes one variety has yet to tap into its upside.

“On the brown side, there’s lots of supply right now. Demand for the grower’s product isn’t as strong as it could be. Once that brown mustard works its way through the system, I think we’ll be back towards more normal pricing on that,” Mitzel said.

Despite the lower prices, he said that growers still want mustard in their rotations and in certain areas such as southwest Saskatchewan, it can be more profitable than canola.

SaskMustard will spread the good word about the crop at various events later this year, including Ag in Motion in Langham, Sask. from July 15 to 17. There will also be an annual field tour around Swift Current on July 17 in conjunction with the Wheatland Conservation Area.

SaskMustard is also continuing its collaboration with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in developing new varieties of mustard. Some have been widely accepted by mustard growers despite not seeing higher yields due to dry conditions.

“We launched a hybrid brown a couple of years ago and a composite yellow seed variety came out of that as well. Those are the two big ones that have made a big difference in growing mustard and helping growers produce more seed,” Mitzel said, adding that researchers will also work on varieties that are more resistant to damage and disease.

“We’re hoping for some moisture so we can have a more productive season for growing mustard.”

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