Sask. grain farmers expect near-record harvest

It looks like 2013 will be a great year for grain farmers in Saskatchewan.

Harvest is halfway done and farmers across the province are bringing in a bumper crop.

Crop reports indicate that near-record levels of grain will be harvested this year. Some farmers are bringing in 60 bushels per acre of canola, which is much higher than the usual 40.

"Lentils have been pretty decent and we have been working on canola the last couple days," Dave Schoenroth, a farmer near Balgonie, said. "It's [canola] been pretty good too. Some of it was hailed on but it still yielded not too badly."

With all this grain pouring in, businesses are feeling the effect as storage bins are a hot commodity.

Curt Flaman with Flaman Agriculture said some farmers are storing grain on the ground because they have run out of places to put it.

"We've been pretty much cleaned right out in Saskatoon and pretty much across our whole province," Flaman said. "Farmers haven't expected this big of crop yields and I don't think anybody could have expected the bumper crop everyone is having. So we're pretty much cleaned right out of bins. Wedo have more coming in, but as of right now we are sold out."

Flaman said his company won't be receiving any grain storage equipment until late October.

The over abundance of grain comes at a cost. A grain glut means prices are trending down.

Last year, a bushel of wheat sold for about $9. This year, the price has fallen to $5.75. Most crops are travelling the same downward path.

"Canola for instance -- last year off the combine -- was probably about three and half dollars higher than it is now per bushel," Schoenroth said. "That makes quite a difference."