Canada's crops in best shape in a decade despite extreme weather, monitoring firm says

Even as floods, tornadoes and hailstorms hammer the Canadian Prairies, farmers are seeing the best crop conditions in a decade halfway through the growing season, according to EarthDaily's analysis of satellite and agronomic data.

The extreme weather has not lessened, but a years-long drought that left thousands of farmers across the vast prairies struggling to produce a crop has eased after bountiful spring rains provided enough moisture for the crop to germinate. Warm summer weather has sped crop development.

"The vast majority of the western prairie is ahead, and looking pretty darned good," said Nick Ohrtman, global crop analysis lead for EarthDaily, about the entire Prairies region. The region, equivalent in size to the farmland of Western Europe, has been hit hard since 2020 by drought, which slashed yields and ravaged farmer finances.

The 120 million acres of prairie farmland produce the world's biggest canola crop, are often the largest source of spring wheat, and the main global supplier of myriad smaller crops, including lentils and mustard.