What agricultural products are important to Canada's prairies?

Wheat, canola, and barley are the major agricultural products of Canada's prairie provinces, making Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Manitoba the breadbasket of the country. Canada is the world's third-largest wheat exporter (after Russia and the United States), the largest exporter of canola and canola products, the largest producer and exporter of mustard seed, and a major exporter of pulses including peas, lentils, chickpeas, and beans.

Saskatchewan alone produces about 45 per cent of Canada's wheat and 40 per cent of Canada's canola, with Alberta second and Manitoba third. The province's flat, fertile black soil belt was settled under the Dominion Lands Act of 1872, which offered 160-acre homesteads (about 65 hectares) to settlers willing to break the land. The Canadian Pacific Railway, completed in 1885, carried the first wheat exports east to Atlantic ports and west to British Columbia and Pacific markets.

Canola was developed in Canada in the 1970s by University of Manitoba and Agriculture Canada researchers Keith Downey and Baldur Stefansson, who bred rapeseed cultivars with low erucic acid and low glucosinolate content. The name 'canola' (Canadian Oil, Low Acid) was coined in 1978 and registered as a trademark by the Western Canadian Oilseed Crushers Association. Canada now grows about 20 million tonnes of canola annually on roughly nine million hectares.

Other prairie agricultural products include beef cattle (Canada is the eighth largest beef exporter in the world), pulses, oats, flaxseed, hay, and durum wheat for pasta production. The Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly on western wheat and barley exports ended on August 1, 2012 under the Marketing Freedom for Grain Farmers Act, opening the market to private grain handlers including Viterra (acquired by Glencore in 2013), Cargill, Richardson International, and G3 Canada (a partnership between Bunge and the Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company).