G3 Canada weather and crop specialist Bruce Burnett says Prairie temperatures should reach a normal pattern over the next few weeks, which will hopefully prevent winter cereals from breaking dormancy in Manitoba.

He says last week's spring snowfall was a good sign for Manitoba producers after a lack of precipitation this winter.

"We are getting some nice snows for the topsoil moisture situation in the spring, we just need a bit more precipitation here, especially across the southern grain belt," he says.

But while the Canadian Prairies have benefited from recent precipitation, it's been a different story for farmers in India.

Drought plagued most of the growing season this winter in India, with a poor monsoon season. Indian fields saw some late rains recently, however it wasn't enough to correct the damage done to the dry crops already — in fact it may have made matters worse. Harvest is underway, so Burnett says the crop could potentially lose quality from the untimely rains.

This may be a good sign for Canadian farmers, however, as the poor production from India has already indicated there will be more demand for pulse crops on the Prairies.

"With these quality problems (in India), again, that increases demand for good quality pulses, which Canada provides," Burnett says, "of course India will be planting their summer pulse crops in the next few months here and we'll have to see how that crop goes in terms of production but certainly the demand looks to be strong."

Agriculture Canada expects acreage for pulses and oilseeds in Canada to increase this growing season, while grains acreage is anticipated to decrease.