Durum Summit 2025

I attended the Durum Summit in Swift Current SK, an event bringing industry, farmers, buyers, and breeders together. Keven Hursh talked about the state of the durum industry in Canada and Canadian agriculture.

• Durum acres may be up slightly (even though AAFC thinks it may be down)
• Trade war's will change the crop net returns vs these presented numbers
• Nitrogen prices have softened over the past few years but are still high vs crop price drops
• ​Some machinery has went up 35-40% for the same size of machine
• ​The USA is the 3rd largest customer of Canadian durum at about 16% last season.

The Durum market can be very interesting as a seed grower, picking what variety or trait will be popular can be challenging as well as how much to grow.

• There have been years where we sell triple the previous season due to prices or quality concerns in the market (like FHB / Sprouting)
• What used to be one or two varieties is now 5-6 options due to solid stem traits, VB, earlier and later varieties as well as taller and shorter.
• Disease resistance has become better with I ratings for FHB and a lower ergot risk variety (Frontier) also expand the options in durum seed.