MarketsFarm — Despite an influx of snow across southern Manitoba, with more precipitation in the forecast for this week, a provincial pulse specialist isn’t too concerned about the potential for late planting of pulse crops.
“The moisture is welcome, but it’s not the weather we would like to see at this time of the year. But we got to take what we can get,” said Dennis Lange, the Manitoba government’s industry development pulses specialist.
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“At this point, I’m not too concerned about [any delay]. We’re about a month away from planting.”
Usually the first of the pulse crops seeded in Manitoba is dry peas, typically underway by the middle of May, he said. Other crops such as dry beans are planted around the Victoria Day long weekend.
“Generally, farmers can get stuff in pretty quick, so I’m thinking we will probably see some seeding about a month from now,” Lange said.
In 2021, the bulk of the pulses planted by Manitoba farmers were 224,100 acres of dry peas (up 27.9 per cent from 2020) and 193,300 of dry beans (down 5.6 per cent from 2020), according to Statistics Canada.
That resulted in 210,758 tonnes of peas (down 14.4 per cent) and 109,436 tonnes of beans (down 45.1 per cent).
Current prices for peas in Western Canada included greens at $12.35-$15.75 per bushel and yellows at $15.98-$18.50/bu., according to Prairie Ag Hotwire. Feed peas across the region are $12.50-$14/bu.
Meanwhile, depending on the type of bean and its colour, bean prices are 33 to 63.5 cents/lb.
StatsCan is scheduled to issue its planting projections for 2022 next week, on April 26.
— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.
