Crops, 2025 map and 2026 estimate
What grew on irrigated and non-irrigated pivot fields
2026 is a model estimate, so read the shape, not the change: AAFC's own 2026 map arrives in 2027. 2025 crops come from AAFC's Annual Crop Inventory. Hectares are whole fields on centre pivots that Headgate's answer called irrigated in each season; the irrigation calls of the two seasons use different rules, so this is not a measure of change in irrigation. Beans and potatoes have medium confidence or less in the 2026 estimate; peas and lentils are indicative only and are not shown.
On pivot fields called irrigated
- Spring wheat
- Canola
- Barley
- Pasture and forage
- Corn for grain
- Beans
- Potatoes
On pivot fields called not irrigated
- Spring wheat
- Canola
- Barley
- Pasture and forage
- Corn for grain
- Beans
- Potatoes
Crops, with and without irrigation
What grew on irrigated and on non-irrigated land in 2026
Predicted crop of each mapped field, split by the beta irrigation answer. Undetermined fields (8,182 fields, 319,548 ha) are not shown.
On fields called irrigated, 2026
506,818 ha in 13,539 fields. Hectares by predicted crop, scale 0 to 160,000 ha.
- Spring wheat
- Canola
- Barley
- Pasture and forage
- Peas
- Corn for grain
- Lentils
- Winter wheat
- Beans
- Other (rare classes)
- Rye
- Grassland
- Potatoes
On fields called not irrigated, 2026
3,549,062 ha in 94,143 fields. Hectares by predicted crop, scale 0 to 1,300,000 ha.
- Spring wheat
- Canola
- Barley
- Pasture and forage
- Peas
- Corn for grain
- Lentils
- Winter wheat
- Beans
- Other (rare classes)
- Rye
- Grassland
- Potatoes
The crop is a model's estimate, not a map. AAFC's 2026 crop map is expected in 2027, so each field's 2026 crop was predicted with a Random Forest on the Sentinel-2 vegetation curve of the field core and the crop of the two previous years. Tested on 2025 in blocks the model had not seen, it agreed with AAFC on 58% of fields (27% when simply repeating last year's crop). There is no 2026 field truth; only 22% of fields have a probability of 0.7 or more. Canola, spring wheat, forage and corn are the most reliable; peas, lentils, potatoes, rye and wetland are not, and peas and lentils are understated. The irrigation status is the beta field-by-field answer (not validated), and both come from the same satellite curves, so they are not independent. Hectares are whole fields. 4,375,428 ha of fields have a predicted crop; 14,460 fields without a usable core have none. Provisional until AAFC publishes 2026.
Season by season
Green centre-pivot area
Hectares, whole basin. Scale 0 to 300,000 ha.
- 2021
- 2022
- 2023
- 2024
- 2025
- 2026*
A greenness signal that moves with the weather, not an assessed area. District reports show 94% to 96% of assessed acres irrigated every year from 2021 to 2025. *2026 uses a looser rule because the crop map is not out. Green-pivot area and the fields called irrigated in the crop figures (506,818 ha in 2026) are different measures and are not reconciled with the area districts assess.
Where, 2026
Green pivots by sub-basin
Hectares in 2026. Scale 0 to 125,000 ha.
- Oldman
- South Saskatchewan
- Bow
- Red Deer
The four sub-basins add up to 257,181 ha; the other 3,162 ha of the 260,343 ha total lie outside them. This is a pivot-only signal, not the fields called irrigated in the crop figures.
The foundation
What is loaded behind the prototype
Known gap: river flow from Jan. 1 to Sept. 27, 2026, because Environment and Climate Change Canada keeps only 30 days of real-time data and the historical series ends in 2025.
Radar, in preparation
RADARSAT Constellation scenes extracted
These are scenes extracted and summarised, not a result: the radar irrigation model is not built yet, and in our tests radar alone scores below optical imagery. Sentinel-1 radar is already used in the in-season monitoring view (beta). RADARSAT Constellation Mission Imagery © Government of Canada (2025). RADARSAT is an official mark of the Canadian Space Agency.