Farmers credited pricey technology and better seeds with producing record yields in western Canada recently, despite flooding and drought. Some feel climate change could make such bountiful harvests a more common occurrence in the future.
Canada is warming at twice the rate of the global average, with a drop in annual snowfall and erratic moisture during the summer, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada.
“Western Canada is projected to lead growth, with production rising 16% year-over-year to 85.3 metric tons, which is 23% above the five-year average, as nearly all crops posted gains. In contrast, Eastern Canada’s output is expected to decline 6.5% from 2024, driven by lower corn and soybean production that outweighed gains in wheat,” Statistics Canada said in its 2025-26 outlook for field crops.
In Manitoba, the average corn yield was 147 bushels per acre, setting a provincial record. Record harvests of spring wheat and canola also were announced.
“We were extremely dry and (it was) incredible what we did get with the little amount of rain,” Warren McCutcheon, who farms near Carman, told The Western Producer, saying there barely was any rain for six weeks. “We were about 175 (bushels per acre) in 2024 … across the farm. I don’t know if we’ll get there this year, but we’re not far off.”
Further south, an extra 2 or 3 inches of rain pushed yields to 200 bushels per acre, McCutcheon said.
Statistics Canada said spring wheat came in at 58.8 bushels an acre, up 77% from three decades ago, and canola yields of 4.7 bushels an acre were nearly double despite hotter, dryer temperatures.
Simon Ellis, a fourth-generation farmer in Wawanesa, about 85 miles west of Carman, credits his investment in expensive systems including zero-till farming, underground drainage systems and slow-release fertilizer in averting “catastrophic failure” of his wheat crop following a season marked by flooding and drought, Reuters reported.
Saskatchewan also reported a record grain harvest. The agriculture ministry said production was up 13.7% from last year. The province grew 12.7 million tons of spring wheat, 5.4 million tons of durum, 3.5 million tons of barley and 1.8 million tons each of dry peas and oats.
Seed science has gone a long way to mitigate climactic changes.
“We’re just starting down that path,” Rick Mitzel, CEO of the farmer-and-industry-funded mustard seed development organization, Mustard 21, told Reuters. The company has a drought-tolerant alternative to canola under development that grows more quickly.
