Canada & USA: Barley crop forecasts revised downwards in spite of arrival of much needed rains

Much needed rainfall has arrived across North American, improving barley crop prospects in Canada and USA. A bit surprising was Stats Canada seeded barley area reduction of 4.2% from the level of crop’24 planting. This lower area offsets the improved crop conditions and RMI Analytics’ Canadian crop forecast drops -0.7 mln tonnes to 8.2 mln.

The USDA forecast for United States’ barley planted area is 2.2% above 2024, while crop conditions are 43% Good/Excellent versus last year at 64%. RMI Analytics’ US crop’25 forecast of 2.8 mln tonnes is down slightly by -0.1 mln.

Variability in the Canadian crop is high. The final result will be a likely range of quality results, the analysts said.