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facility opened in Edmonton in 2012,
and research in the Lethbridge region is
expected to begin this spring.
“We’re starting to produce corn
hybrids for the Alberta market,” Stokke
said. “It’s an early-maturity program
at both locations and, in an area like
Lethbridge, you’re naturally selecting
for drought resistance. In the last two
years, we have made investments in all
our facilities in Western Canada. We’re
getting ready to put corn and soybean
programs in all these facilities.”
Stokke’s opinion is that corn acres will
first start replacing feed barley and feed
wheat acres on the western Prairies.
Several ethanol plants, in addition to
ranches, feedlots and dairy livestock, will
provide a ready market for Alberta and
Saskatchewan grain corn.
“The opportunity for feed corn is really
good. As new, higher-yielding hybrids
come along, and as we put more Pioneer
people on the ground helping people
to grow more corn, I see the adoption
leading to more acres,” Stokke said.
A time will come, he suggested, when
“I see us growing grain corn for human
consumption just like we do wheat or
barley, mainly for export. In time, we will
be a net exporter of corn.”
MARKET ANALYSIS
The commodity market has a slightly
different perspective, according to Chris
Ferris, Canada senior grains analyst for
Informa Economics in Winnipeg.
Informa provides advisory letters to
governments, companies, organizations
and individual
investors, covering
corn, soybeans
and anything to do
with the grains and
oilseed complex. It
recently did a study
for the Manitoba
Corn Growers
Association.
“I really see soybeans as the crop that
will take off quicker,” Ferris said. “It’s
a cheap crop to put in. It can handle
moisture shocks that some other crops
can’t. And, soybeans have already made
substantial inroads against canola in
southeastern Manitoba.”
Soybeans are a newer crop, but they
are already shooting past corn.
Manitoba soybean acres are rapidly
increasing—the 2013 planting exceeded
one million acres. Soybean insurance
was introduced for
Saskatchewan in 2012,
and Saskatchewan
soybean crops
were in the range of
150,000 to 200,000
acres in 2013. Now,
a few growers in
southeastern Alberta
are venturing into trial
crops of soybeans for the first time.
Corn has great long-term potential,
but there’s a reason that soybeans are
leading the way into new acres right now.
“Once you’ve got good and consistent
yields for corn, and a reasonable price,
you can make good money and acres
will expand,” said Ferris. “That applies to
soybeans, too, but the cost of production
per acre is lower for soybeans.”
So, could it do more? Yes, corn will
eventually become a serious alternative
crop widely grown in Western Canada—
but for now it is a king-in-waiting, and it
isn’t waiting alone.
Developing the earlier corn hybrids
will make a big difference in market
and farm attitudes to corn's potential,
Ferris said.
“If seed companies can bump up
yields to about 120-plus bushels per
acre, you’ll see that growth rate starting
to climb pretty darn quick. In Manitoba,
we’re starting to see 120-plus bushels per
acre of corn consistently. Alberta is not
growing a whole lot yet.”
Spring
2014
Grains
West
22
STANDING TALL:
With enough heat units and
frost-free days, new corn varieties show promise to
increase yields and shorten growing cycles.
“I really see soybeans
as the crop that will
take off quicker.”
–Chris Ferris