Canadians Eat Their Wheat

The Canadian government released their 2008 Variety Survey showing that the proportion of Canadian wheat grown for food has not changed, despite recent public attention to ethanol production. More than 88% of wheat acres on the Canadian Prairies are seeded with spring wheat or durum, used mainly to make bread and pasta for human consumption.

The vast majority of western Canadian wheat farmers still plant Canada Western Red Spring wheat, (61.9%) a breadmaking wheat, or Canada Western Amber Durum (26.5%), a high-quality ingredient in pasta. There are seven minor classes of wheat, including those used more frequently for animal feed or ethanol. A new wheat class, Canada Western General Purpose, was introduced this year with no milling quality requirements, for high yield wheat varieties for the feed and ethanol markets. ❖