Protein levels for western Canadian spring wheat will likely be below normal, but still up from the previous year’s levels, Burnett said.
Warmer temperatures in the eastern Prairies will help protein levels improve, he said, while increased moisture in the western regions will likely cause protein levels to decline.
As well, a below-average growing season for hail claims in Manitoba and Saskatchewan is now back in “average” territory.
The Canadian Crop Hail Association, a Prairie hail insurers’ group, reported hail claims in Manitoba have “nearly tripled” by mid-August to about 1,850 and are now much nearer the average number for this time of year.
Storms in Manitoba during the August long weekend brought hail mostly to the province’s southwest, with the most significant storm northwest of Brandon, in the area around Isabella, Crandell, Hamiota and Rivers.
Other affected areas included Brookdale-Wellwood, Carman-Homewood, Sinclair, Elgin, Minto and a strip in the south from Medora and Boissevain to Cartwright and Clearwater. “Significant” damage was reported in some areas that saw golf ball- to hardball-sized hailstones, the association said.
WHEAT PRICES
RISING
The hottest run-up in the wheat market since 2008 prompted the Canadian Wheat Board to issue a special market advisory last week to alert farmers to potential pricing opportunities.
David Boyes, the board’s commodity risk manager, said two market fundamentals — severe drought in Russia and excessive moisture cutting production in Western Canada — were fuelling the rally, although there was a widely held view the effects of those events on global supplies have been exaggerated.
“These two factors combined have created an enormous amount of interest in wheat futures values and a lot of speculative buying of those futures,” Boyes said in a YouTube broadcast.
“So we’ve seen futures values in Minneapolis, Kansas and Chicago increase by 50 per cent over the past month,” he said.
Wheat futures markets have now posted their largest monthly percentage gains since 1959, with values shooting to more than US$8 per bushel as of opening on Aug. 5 — the highest levels since the rally of 2008.

-with files from
Glacier Media