Western Canada may be in the midst of a deep freeze, but the winter wheat crops are protected.

"The crop sure is protected, there's lots of snow," said Jake Davidson, executive director of Winter Cereals Canada. "I would say that snow cover is more than adequate in most places."

The snow in many of Western Canada's winter wheat-growing regions is helping protect the crop from the extremely cold temperatures.

The weather is expected to warm up in mid-January in some areas, but the swinging temperatures shouldn't cause problems as long as the snow doesn't melt, Mr. Davidson said.

The crop is expected to remain in good condition throughout the winter as long as there aren't any quick thaws before the spring.

"It's the freeze thaws that could cause problems, because (the ground) can get wet and the top level of the soil freezes and you get the ice in there," Mr. Davidson said. "It'll do in the crop."

The crop was generally well established in many areas ahead of the winter freeze, he said. "We're working on the theory that all is going to be well."

Acres planted to winter wheat were the same as last year. Area dropped in Manitoba, but that doesn't mean production in the province will also be down. If the weather stays good, production should be around the same as the year prior because a lot of winter wheat crops in Manitoba were victims of winterkill last year, said Mr. Davidson.

Farmers in Saskatchewan and Alberta planted more acres to winter wheat than last year.

Western Canadian farmers planted 1.155 million acres of winter wheat, with 525,000 from Saskatchewan, 435,000 in Manitoba and 195,000 in Alberta, Statistics Canada data show.

Source - http://online.wsj.com