The federal Statistics Canada agency said total stocks of grain corn were 6 million tons, 10 percent higher than March 2007, well above the previous record of 5.8 million tons set in 2006.

The total estimate for oats was 2 million tons, an increase of 30.3 percent from 2007 and substantially above the five-year average of 1.6 million tons, StatsCan said.

Total stocks of wheat excluding durum amounted to an estimated 8.8 million tons, down 4 million tons from March 2007, based on a 25.3 percent drop in production in 2007. Durum wheat stocks tumbled 35.2 percent to 2.1 million tons. Two years ago, a record 5.2 million tons of durum was reported, the report said.

Stocks of canola were down 22.2 percent over the year at 3.7 million tons, and barley stocks dipped 2.4 percent to 4.5 million tons during the period, the agency said.