Canada's wheat crop is in trouble

The Canadian Wheat Board says this year could be even worse than 2010, sucking an additional $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion out of the Prairie economy.

On Tuesday, the board said between 2.4 and 3.2 million hectares of farmland is still unseeded across the Prairies this year because of wet weather.

"This is occurring at a time when grain prices are extremely high, adding insult to injury," said Bruce Burnett, the board's director of weather and market analysis.

"Many farmers in the wettest areas have planted next to nothing this spring, while others are watching their newly emerged crops drown," Burnett said.

Your News: Are your crops being affected by the wet weather? Share your stories. The seeding estimate is only marginally better than last year — another wet planting season — which set a record low that stretched back to 1971

Droughts wilt wheat crops worldwide

The worst droughts in decades are wilting wheat fields from China to the US to the UK, driving prices to the highest levels since 2008 despite Russia’s return to grain export markets.

Parts of China, the biggest grower, have had the least rain in a century, some European regions are the driest in 50 years and almost half the winter-wheat crop in the US, the largest exporter, is rated poor or worse. Rabobank International estimates that inventory is dropping 8.8 percent, the most in five years.

Wheat prices as much as doubled in the past year as crops failed, spurring Ukraine and Russia to curb shipments and increasing the US share of global sales by the most since 2004. The end of Russia’s export ban on July 1 and the lifting of quotas by Ukraine may not be enough to rein in prices as crops wither elsewhere, fuelling gains in food prices which the UN says are already near a record.

“In 32 years, I’ve never seen so many problems in so many places,” said Dan Basse of AgResource, a US farm researcher. “We’re concerned about the world story now.”