The Canadian Wheat Board reports the number of acres seeded to barley this year in western Canada increased while the number of acres seeded to wheat fell.

CWB director of weather and crop surveillance Bruce Burnett notes the moisture situation looks good for most areas on the prairies which should result in some good yields.

Bruce Burnett-Canadian Wheat Board

Really right now yield potentials are above average, I think, for all crops.

Certainly we saw an increase in the barley area this year, a quite substantial increase from last year, up close to 20 percent and so that, combined with the good weather in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, should result in a pretty decently sized barley crop.

We're currently projecting barley production to be close to 12 million tonnes which is up substantially from last year.

On the wheat side we're looking for a smaller crop.

Of course what happened this year, we had a combination of factors.

The economics of spring wheat planting were maybe not as good as some of the other crops.

Especially with the high fertilizer prices farmers were looking at some cropping alternatives so our wheat area is down and our total production, we estimate, is only going to reach just a little bit under 21 million tonnes in western Canada which is down significantly from last year's production.

We're looking at reduced supplies for wheat and increased supplies for barley and oats this year.

Burnett says the major losses this year have resulted from excess moisture keeping acres in northeastern Saskatchewan, north central areas and into Alberta from being planted but the crops that did get planted in those areas look good.

He notes the weather during harvest will be the next critical factor.