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Author: T. Allen
Agricultural Economics, University of Saskatchewan
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, S7N 5A8

• Introduction
• Europe
• Former Soviet Union (FSU)
• North America
• Rye Production in Canada

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North America

Europeans who settled North America brought their traditional crops with them, including rye. Rye was a popular crop in North America during the 19th and first half of the 20th century. Rye has been produced and consumed in Canada for over a hundred years, but both acreage and production have declined. Over 1.2 million acres were planted in 1921 in Saskatchewan, compared to a barley acreage of 498 thousand acres, and a wheat crop of 13.6 million acres. This can be contrasted to the area seeded to the three crops in 1993: 225 thousand acres of rye, 3.7 million acres of barley, and 14.9 million acres of wheat. It is clear that rye has not maintained its acreage base in Saskatchewan, or for that matter, anywhere in the world.

The situation in the United States is similar to that in Canada, as production and consumption of rye has decreased throughout the 20th century. However, the decline has been even greater in the United States and now small amounts of rye must be imported, primarily from Canada, to satisfy the needs of the U.S. milling industry.

Rye Production in Canada

World rye production is concentrated in Northern Europe and although Canada has a large share of the world trade in this commodity, it only produces about two percent of total world production. Rye is not a major crop in Canada, as it ranks behind wheat, barley, canola, oats, and flax in terms of production, and it is the only traditional cereal crop that consistently reports an area of less than one million acres. There does not appear to be any recent changes in this pattern as the smallest rye acreage's in recent history were reported in 1992 and 1993. However, rye is a multiple use crop that is used as a cereal grain, forage, and annual pasture, and because the land seeded for forage and pasture is often not reported, production statistics understate the actual area planted to rye.

Rye production in Canada has traditionally been centered in Western Canada, with Saskatchewan usually reporting the highest rye acreage. Rye production in Canada from 1984 to 1993 averaged 474,500 tonnes per year of which 210,200 tonnes was produced in Saskatchewan (Table 2). Over the same time period, rye production in Alberta averaged 104,400 tonnes and Manitoba production averaged 116,000 tonnes. Production in the remainder of Canada averaged only 43,500 tonnes.

The 1991 Census of Canada reported that there were 280,043 farmers in Canada but only 5,158 reported growing rye. Although Saskatchewan has the largest production of rye, only a small percentage of Saskatchewan's 60,840 reported farmers are rye growers.

Table 2. Production of Rye in Canada by Province (1984-1993)

	P.E.I.	N.S.	N.B.	Que.	Ont.	Man.	Sask.	Alta.	BC.	Total
('000 tonnes)
1984	-	3.8	-	-	76.2	195.8	229.7	210.4	9.4	652.3
1985	-	3.2	-	-	66.0	167.3	205.4	119.4	7.6	568.9
1986	-	-	-	-	45.7	57.4	261.7	142.2	7.6	514.6
1987	-	-	-	-	35.6	45.7	198.1	121.9	7.6	408.9
1988	-	-	-	-	26.7	55.9	86.4	99.1	8.9	277.0
1989	-	-	-	-	39.4	198.1	408.9	152.4	7.6	806.4
1990	-	-	-	-	43.2	157.5	299.7	91.4	7.6	599.4
1991	3.2	-	-	3.4	43.2	61.0	147.3	76.2	4.4	338.7
1992	-	-	-	1.3	25.4	62.2	99.8	75.0	1.5	265.2
1993				0.8	26.7	43.2	165.1	76.2	1.5	313.5
Average	.3	.7	-	0.6	42.8	104.4	210.2	116.4	6.4	474.5

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Source: Canadian Grains Industry, Statistical Handbook 93

Production and acreage statistics show that rye is not a major crop anywhere in Canada. This is not because rye is unsuited agronomically. Rye is a versatile crop which adapts to a variety of soil and moisture conditions. This adaptability is evident when one examines rye production within Saskatchewan. Rye production is largest in Crop District 4, which is the hottest and driest district and is located in the extreme south west corner of the province. However, rye is produced in all nine crop districts (Table 3) and Crop District 9, which is the most northerly crop district in the province, and one of the coolest and wettest areas, had the fifth highest production of rye over the period 1984 to 1993. There would appear to be no agronomic reason to explain why rye is not grown by more farmers on a larger acreage.

Table 3. Production of Rye by Crop District in Saskatchewan (1984 to 1993)

	#1	#2	#3	#4	#5	#6	#7	#8	#9
('000 tonnes)
1984	50.8	8.7	22.5	26.5	25.1	30.1	15.1	11.0	39.9
1985	40.3	7.0	16.9	22.5	29.6	31.3	11.8	13.8	32.2
1986	23.5	15.4	48.4	64.1	13.6	39.7	20.2	11.7	26.9
1987	18.7	9.3	38.0	42.5	11.0	31.4	18.6	10.5	23.1
1988	10.5	4.1	12.3	17.3	6.5	9.9	7.1	7.0	11.7
1989	36.8	17.6	63.5	95.1	20.8	51.7	25.8	26.7	43.9
1990	36.5	17.6	61.9	54.3	16.5	44.1	21.3	18.6	28.9
1991	14.7	11.0	23.4	33.3	10.1	17.0	9.1	11.8	16.9
1992	20.3	4.2	15.0	16.3	5.0	19.9	8.3	12.1	8.1
1993	21.3	8.6	12.4	28.9	15.9	29.0	20.6	12.0	16.4
AVE.	27.3	10.4	31.4	40.1	15.4	30.4	15.8	13.5	24.8

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Source: Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food: Agricultural
Statistics 1993