Quality of Canadian Soybean, oilseed-type 2018

Weather review

Soybeans are typically seeded early May in eastern Canada and from the last of week of May to the first week of June in western Canada. This year, April temperatures were much colder than normal, delaying all fields activities, including seeding (Figure 2a) in western as well as eastern Canada. May was hot and dry allowing seeding to progress rapidly in all the provinces (Figure 2a). In 2018, all soybean areas were seeded by the first week of June.

Figure 2a. National weather maps - Precipitation departure from average in the past 30 days as of May 31st, July 30th, August 30th and September 30th, 2018

To develop, soybean seed need heat and rain. However, the moisture timing is important to ensure soybean pod filling. It is critical for soybean to receive moisture during the second part of July and the first part of August as pods are filling. Growing conditions were vastly different in temperature and precipitation (timing and amount) in the east and in the west (Figures 2a and 2b).

Figure 2b. National weather maps – Monthly mean temperature difference from normal for April, May, July, August, September and October 2018

In the east, Ontario and Québec, May June and early July were dry. However, there were some timely precipitations during the second part of July and in August that helped the crop to grow and the pods to fill (Figure 2b), this resulted in surprising record harvests in Ontario and Québec. In 2018, Ontario had a record yield at 3,454 kg/hectare and Québec had the second highest yield at 3,151 kg/hectare In western Canada, precipitation was sparse in July and August and then abundant in September (Figure 2b). This led to a low yield crop that was wet and difficult to harvest. In the prairies, the delayed soybean harvest was completed by the end of October in Manitoba (98% completed) and the first week of November in Saskatchewan (99% completed). The yields were lower than last year, about 2,089 kg/hectare in Manitoba and 1,416 kg/hectare in Saskatchewan.

Source:

• Canada weather maps
• Ontario crop report
• Manitoba crop report
• Saskatchewan crop report
• Saskatchewan specialty crop report

Production and grade information

Figure 3. Historic soybean production data in Canada, 2000 to 2018

• Details

  Historic soybean production data in Canada, 2000 to 2018

  Year	Canada	Prince Edward Island	Nova Scotia	New Brunswick	Quebec	Ontario	Manitoba	Saskatchewan	Alberta
  2000	2,703,000	4,700	-	-	385,000	2,313,300	-	-	-
  2001	1,635,200	4,400	-	-	315,000	1,279,100	36,700	-	-
  2002	2,335,700	6,700	-	-	315,000	1,905,100	108,900	-	-
  2003	2,273,300	5,400	-	-	390,000	1,728,200	149,700	-	-
  2004	3,043,900	6,500	-	-	520,000	2,476,600	40,800	-	-
  2005	3,155,600	9,300	-	-	505,000	2,585,500	55,800	-	-
  2006	3,465,500	11,100	-	-	535,000	2,667,100	252,300	-	-
  2007	2,686,200	11,100	-	-	472,000	2,000,300	202,800	-	-
  2008	3,335,900	17,100	-	-	600,000	2,476,000	242,200	-	-
  2009	3,581,600	36,200	-	-	530,000	2,694,300	321,100	-	-
  2010	4,444,600	40,700	6,600	9,100	823,000	3,129,800	435,400	-	-
  2011	4,466,500	45,400	9,300	8,400	800,000	3,189,700	413,700	-	-
  2012	5,086,400	51,400	10,600	9,300	843,000	3,401,900	770,200	-	-
  2013	5,358,900	61,500	12,000	13,200	847,000	3,238,600	1,068,200	118,400	-
  2014	6,048,600	60,100	14,800	13,600	898,000	3,791,100	1,107,700	163,300	-
  2015	6,459,100	47,200	12,800	12,200	1,088,100	3,728,500	1,390,700	179,600	-
  2016	6,552,100	49,000	12,800	14,700	1,129,400	3,374,700	1,769,000	202,500	-
  2017	7,716,600	49,000	15,500	16,200	1,115,000	3,796,600	2,245,300	479,000	-
  2018	7,266,500	43,200	18,500	14,900	4,200,500	1,164,000	1,581,600	231,800	11,600

Seeded area and production data for 2018 and 2017 are in Table 2. In 2018, all seeded soybean areas decreased in Canada when compared to 2017. In the west, there was a 26% and 52% decrease in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, respectively compared to 2017. The seeded areas decrease in the east was not as drastic, about 7% in Québec and 2% in Ontario (Table 2).

Up until this year Canada's soybean production has been increasing steadily since 2007 (Figure 3) as production has been increasing in Ontario and expanded to Manitoba first and then Saskatchewan and Alberta. New varieties adapted to western Canada's growing conditions have been developed with less heat units required.

Even if total seeded areas was lower in 2018 than in 2017, production in Central Canada was higher in 2018 than in 2017 as there was a substantial yield increase in Ontario in 2018 when compared to 2017 - a 10% increase when compared to last year. In 2018, about 57.8% of the Canadian soybean were produced in Ontario (49.2% in 2017), 21.8% on Manitoba and 16% in Québec. Less than favourable growing conditions pushed the 2018 soybean yields to another record low in Saskatchewan (1,416 kg/ha) and below average yields in Manitoba (2,089 kg/ha).