Farmers in Ontario will plant more corn in 2009 than in 2008 and a whole lot more soybeans. Corn production will jump 5.1 per cent from 1.76 million acres in 2008 to 1.85 million acres this year, says a Statistics Canada survey.

Ontario farmers will plant 2.3 million acres of soybeans, about 200,000 acres more than last year, according to the 2009 seeding intentions published by Statistics Canada on April 24. Quebec will boost its acreage slightly to 580,000 acres.

Quebec farmers expect to plant about the same acreage of corn as last year, about 976,000 acres.

Planting intentions across Canada reveal that soybean acreage will increase by 10.5 per cent while corn acreage will increase by 3.7 per cent.

Wheat acreage across Canada is expected to be about the same as last year, at more than 25 million acres. But winter wheat has fallen off by 19 per cent.

In Ontario, both winter and spring wheat are expected to show sharp declines. Farmers planted 960,000 acres of winter wheat, down 21 per cent; and intend to plant 170,000 acres of spring wheat, off by more than 25 per cent.

Except for small increases for fodder corn and oats Quebec farmers appear to be planting about the same acreage as last year.

The biggest change is on the Prairies where spring wheat acreage is expected to reach 17 million acres, a 6.2 per cent increase. Dry peas acres will increase to 4.2 million acres, up by 5.3 per cent.

The Statscan survey was conducted in March and polled 14,500 farms.