Southeast area farmers are well underway with spring seeding so far, with progress halted briefly by rain on Friday, on their way to a larger crop than last year, expected to also be larger than the 10-year average of seeded acres.

According to seeding plans released recently by Statistics Canada, Saskatchewan's farmers plan to seed 35.1 million acres to the major grains, oilseeds and specialty crops this year.

This total is up four per cent from last year (when 33.61 million acres were seeded), and is up two per cent from the 10-year average of 34.28 million acres.

Most crops will be increased in acreage, except for three: spring wheat (which will be down 17 per cent to 8.83 million acres), flax (which will decrease by 29 per cent to 1.15 million acres) and lentils (which will decrease by nine per cent to 1.27 million acres). The decline in acres seeded to spring wheat is the largest decrease in Canada, while Saskatchewan farmers also reported the largest increase of canola (and is on the way to setting a record), as well as the largest increases in barley, oat and pea acreages.

Most crops are expected to be increased, and correspondingly summerfallow area in this province is expected to decrease by 26 per cent to 5.8 million acres.

The following will increase in seeded acres in 2007:

Durum will be up by 12 per cent to 4.2 million acres; oats will jump by 46 per cent to 3.0 million acres; barley is expected to rise by 25 per cent to 4.5 million acres; canola will rise by 16 per cent to 7.4 million acres; and mustard is expected to increase by 22 per cent to 360,000 acres.

Other crops include dry peas, which should be up by three per cent to 2.86 million acres; canary seed, which will increase by 44 per cent to 410,000 acres; triticale, which is expected to increase by nine per cent to 60,000 acres; and chickpeas, which should increase by 37 per cent to 440,000 acres.

The area of winter wheat remaining after winter kill will see a huge increase of 88 per cent to 470,000 acres, while fall rye will slip slightly, by three per cent, to 145,000 acres.

As these are seeding intentions only, the actual acres seeded may change due to economic or weather-related factors during seeding time. The southeast area as a whole is approximately one-quarter done seeding so far, with crop district 3ASE the farthest ahead. This area includes the RMs of Souris Valley, Lake Alma, Surprise Valley, Laurier and The Gap.