Prairie farmers anticipate a record harvest of canola, as well as higher volumes of barley, oats and wheat compared to 2010. The story is much different in Manitoba.

Farmer here are expecting to harvest 1.7 million tonnes of canola, down about 500,000 tonnes from last year.

Farmers also anticipate a 30% decline in all wheat production, a drop of about 989 000 tonnes, to 2.3 million tonnes, the result of adverse weather conditions. Barley production is also expected to slip to 481,000 tonnes this year.

Grain corn and soybean production is also expected to dip, with 373,000 and 406,000 tonnes respectively. Sunflower seed production is expected to be dramatically lower compared to 2010 with with an estimated 16,400 tonnes to be harvested this fall compared to 67,000 tonnes the year previous.

Prairie farmers expect canola production will increase 10.9% to a record 13 million tonnes. This would be the result of a record area to be harvested of 17.8 million acres, and a strong yield of 32.3 bushels per acre.

Total wheat production on the Prairies is expected to reach 21.5 million metric tonnes, up from 21.0 million tonnes produced in 2010. Barley production on the Prairies is expected to rise 11.1% to 7.7 million tonnes in 2011.

Prairie oats production is expected to rise 31.9% to 2.5 million tonnes in 2011.

To view the full Principal Field Crops report from Statistics Canda, click this link.