The growth trend in the crops sector last year for Manitoba was higher than normal. That's from farm production extension specialist Shawn Cabak who says canola currently holds the top spot.

"Some of the trends we've seen in the crops sector have seen yields last year across the province above average compared to the ten-year average. Also, we've seen a switch in crop acres in Manitoba where canola now is the number one crop grown, followed by spring wheat, then soy beans. So, that's bumped oats and barley out of the top three. And oats and barley's actually decreasing in acreage compared to those top three crops."

"I've seen a trend to higher canola acres for a while now," says Cabak. "Red spring wheat has kind of been the cereal of choice for rotation purposes, but now soy beans has really jumped in acres which is displacing some of the other crops."

He lists the present sequence of top acreage crops: "Number one was canola, two was red spring wheat, three was soy beans, fourth was oats, fifth was barley, sixth was feed wheat (which saw a huge increase last year), and seventh was corn when we look at the top acreage crops in the province."