Ontario Field Crop Report – June 29, 2022

Spring Roundup

As we close out the 2022 spring planting window, for the most part we see crops in good shape, but as always, there are regional differences.

Alfalfa in western and southwestern Ontario suffered a great deal of die out this winter. Farmers had to make quick plans to address this issue. Alternatively, alfalfa and winter wheat in eastern Ontario weathered the winter better than normal and producers there are pleased with these crops. Frequent rains in the east, northwest, and Algoma district are challenging dry hay harvest.

The early spring wet period kept most out of the fields in late April and early May. While the rainfall rates were for the most part not excessive, we didn’t get typical spring sunny warm days to dry out the soil and the frequent small showers continued to slow down the drying process (Figure 1.). As well in many places’ soils were still saturated into spring from the excessively wet fall of 2021. These factors led to a condensed planting window for our major row crops. Eastern Ontario especially received more than average rainfall making for additional unwanted stress. The pressure at edible bean planting time had diminished but farmers were finding some dry soil conditions they had to contend with. This added extra pressure to the retail input suppliers and farmers to keep ground preparation going, planters rolling, and sprayers struggling to keep up.

In general, the soil conditions have been excellent for seeding this spring when we finally got to them, we are now seeing evidence of compaction in areas created by starting in the fields when the soils were not quite” fit”. In many places soils were dry in the top ½” but saturated below. Working this ground too early leads to smearing and can cause problems with and following planting. With large planters and equipment, the number of acres that can be covered in short order means a “too early start” can impact a lot of acres. Additionally, the wet period was followed by a dry period and some producers over worked ground which made finding moisture at planting depth problematic. Those on heavy clay soils across various regions of the province had significant struggles in planting in a timely way into fit soils (Figure 2).

This past week with the heat, “pineapple” corn and rolled soybean leaves have been seen in both lighter and heavier soils. Moisture is needed to keep the good potential for yield on track. With the heat and where soil moisture is adequate, we are entering the elongation phase of corn growth leading to mid to late July tasselling depending on location. In soybeans, much of the crop is starting to flower. The heat has brought on rapid colour change in winter wheat as it heads toward grain fill and maturity.

With the condensed spring season, a significant acreage of intended T3 fungicide was not applied or applied late. Fusarium is showing up in fields in the southwest that are well advanced. Farmers should scout their fields to determine the level of fusarium damage and plan to harvest accordingly to ensure quality of the best portion of the crop.

Winds this spring never seemed to let up making the spraying job that much harder. Everyone needs to consider the risks of spraying under windy conditions which can lead to off target drift and injury to other crops/plants and reduces the efficacy of the products at their intended targets.

Weed control has been a struggle and it is important to scout fields as we enter summer. Are there weed escapes that need attention before we run out of time to address them? Are there weeds coming because of the weather conditions or maybe herbicide resistance? Its important to identify that now so you can prepare plans to address any resistance through your weed control choices in the coming fall and spring. Resistance should be checked by collecting seed of some of the escapes and submitting them according to the information at https://www.plant.uoguelph.ca/resistant-weeds.

If you are going to retreat weed escapes it is important to gather plants/seeds according to the instructions at the URL link above before treatment. Live plants that can set seed are needed to test for herbicide resistance. Resistance testing is important since many species are showing multi mode of action resistance. Not knowing the extent of resistance inhibits your ability to plan the best weed control program in future.   A lot of time and dollars are invested in the 2022 crops currently growing. It is vitally important to preserve that yield potential by scouting those fields and addressing problems that can be fixed before we run out of management options available to the 2022 crop.

Weather Data – June 20-26, 2022

Location	Year	Highest Temp (°C)	Lowest Temp (°C)	Rain (mm)	Rain (mm) April 1st	GDD 0C April 1st	GDD 5C April 1st	CHU May 1st
Harrow	2022	33.7	13.3	3.4	208	1237	835	1216
	2021	30.0	7.8	89.6	232	1238	822	1119
	10 YR Avg. (2011-20)	26.8	15.1	26.8	264	1213	781	1184
Ridgetown	2022	33.0	9.8	0.5	174	1151	756	1106
	2021	29.7	6.1	98.2	233	1159	751	1057
	10 YR Avg. (2011-20)	26.3	13.6	15.1	223	1129	702	1094
London	2022	32.5	9.8	0.3	181	1119	729	1069
	2021	28.2	7.5	66.2	201	1154	750	1026
	10 YR Avg. (2011-20)	26.1	13.8	28.6	252	1110	686	1077
Brantford	2022	34.2	8.5	6.6	176	1115	719	1034
	2021	29.9	7.0	60.3	183	1138	733	1015
Welland	2022	30.8	12.7	1.0	190	1158	753	1101
	2021	27.8	7.3	29.6	122	1127	719	1002
	10 YR Avg. (2011-20)	26.2	13.9	19.8	248	1111	686	1072
Elora	2022	32.6	8.0	0.0	163	1024	641	950
	2021	27.0	4.8	42.0	161	1035	639	914
	10 YR Avg. (2011-20)	25.1	12.2	25.1	247	981	571	941
Mount Forest	2022	31.5	8.0	0.7	179	1028	651	974
	2021	27.1	6.2	38.5	140	1045	652	926
	10 YR Avg. (2011-20)	24.8	12.6	38.3	249	964	561	933
Peterborough	2022	31.4	10.0	0.4	212	1033	635	979
	2021	27.6	2.3	23.2	129	1025	618	906
	10 YR Avg. (2011-20)	25.8	10.8	19.4	236	993	582	948
Kemptville	2022	30.7	7.6	28.8	301	1106	689	1047
	2021	28.9	4.9	25.8	168	1140	728	991
	10 YR Avg. (2011-20)	26.3	12.4	19.3	236	1040	630	1005
Earlton	2022	29.1	10.4	18.7	180	912	564	927
	2021	25.3	3.8	82.3	166	967	580	837
	10 YR Avg. (2011-20)	24.8	9.4	21.9	202	772	446	786
Sudbury	2022	27.6	10.9	1.5	189	905	547	897
	2021	23.6	1.8	42.6	178	965	580	846
	10 YR Avg. (2011-20)	24.9	10.7	23.0	221	842	493	846
Thunder Bay	2022	33.9	8.7	4.9	340	706	385	671
	2021	26.9	4.6	12.1	197	840	467	763
	10 YR Avg. (2011-20)	24.4	7.7	28.8	214	700	361	664
Fort Frances	2022	34.6	4.7	44.0	373	774	456	792
	2021	29.0	0.3	8.6	154	904	526	864
	10 YR Avg. (2011-20)	25.1	9.2	22.7	212	808	451	802

.