There’s buzz about the Corn Belt moving northward into Canada’s prairie provinces. Top Producer magazine says, “Leading the charge are Manitoba, where corn acreage has doubled to 380,000 in just two years, and Alberta, which grows almost 25,000 acres of corn.” Overall, Canada has 3.7 million acre of corn, half of it in the east. USDA estimates the Canadian crop will be 460 million bushels this year, a fraction of a U.S. crop that could top 14 billion bushels. An official for Monsanto Canada says acreage in western Canada could reach 8-10 million acres in the next 10 to 15 years.
Key for Canada is access to corn varieties that mature in 70 days. Seed companies are gearing up to do that. Monsanto announced a $100 million investment in research, testing and field staff in Canada in 2013. On Wednesday, DuPont Pioneer announced it was building “a multimillion-dollar research facility in Lethbridge, Alberta, focused on developing ultra-early maturity corn products for growers in Alberta and Western Canada,” said Country Guide.