The long 2022 harvest season that extended well into October allowed all the mustard grown in Canada and USA to come off with virtually no quality issues. Montana growers started their harvest in early July after receiving another of the driest and hottest growing seasons on record. The last area to harvest mustard in Canada and the USA was in northern and eastern Saskatchewan.
The potential yield was set low in June for Northcentral Montana and Southwest Saskatchewan, a hotbed for mustard acres the past 15 years, where little rain was received. Alberta had the best yield potential after the timely June rains. North Dakota, despite some drown out acres, Eastern Saskatchewan and Northeastern Montana had a good, but late, start followed with fair to good harvest results.
The actual results for Olds Products 2022 growers were not far off our pre-harvest forecasts and slightly less than Statistics Canada estimate of 700 lbs/acre. The provincial estimate in Saskatchewan, that has the highest number of mustard acres in Canada, is near 900 lbs/acre. I believe this will be revised lower despite the higher proportion of brown acres there. Yields for mustard were widely variable due to the hit and miss rains, especially for yellow, and this made estimating difficult.
Average yield for Olds Products *harvested mustard (lbs)/acre are:
Alberta Yellow 800
Saskatchewan Yellow 500
Montana/N.Dakota 350
CDN Organic Yellow 500
USA Organic Yellow 800
Saskatchewan Brown 775
Organic Brown 650
Saskatchewan Oriental 700
Given the previous year’s record setting spot prices plus the widely variable and lower than average yield in 2022, spot prices have moved higher from September/October levels for all types. For the time being the market is shrugging off the 2022 rebound to 530,000 acres in Canada and 120,000 acres in the USA. Even with the actual yields that I have presented above, there is sufficient mustard to meet demand. Nonetheless, spot markets are currently not reflecting that fundamental as spot sellers remain steadfast. In the USA mustard acres gained 20% but the average yield was the second lowest. Outside Canada the only other mustard exporting countries are in Eastern Europe and this year led mainly by Russia and Kazakhstan. Both countries have favorable production amounts and may find export opportunities despite the devastating war in the area. Some of the production is a cross variety of yellow and oriental that is suited to local markets in Eastern Europe.
The quality of the 2022 crop in North America is very good. The long harvest allowed different stages of growth caused by the slow start in May to mature evenly by harvest.
Thank you to our contract growers for sending us harvest samples that we also send onto the CGC for their analysis of quality that includes oil and protein.
Olds Products will soon start our 2023 contracting program and we look forward to working with growers in the new crop year. Our demand for contract acres will again set another high mark this year.
Regards,
Walter
*Contracted acres that were turned under due to either drown out or drought are not included in the average. If these zero producing acres were included the average USA organic yield would be less than 100 lbs/acre.