Photo: Uneven corn emergence in a clay loam soil. Today’s notable quotable was from Paul Sullivan: “Cutting trash [in overworked soil] is like cutting a cucumber on a sofa, there’s nothing to push against to cut the residue”. If you like the maps in this article, similar ones on precipitation and temperature are available from AAFC HERE. Data is updated daily, weekly, or…
Warmer conditions starting late last week have fast-tracked crop growth. Rainfall during the past week has been sporadic with isolated thunderstorms resulting in flooded fields in one location and no rainfall less than a km away. Fields in many regions would welcome some moisture. Listen to the audio version below or subscribe on iTunes, Google play or Spotify Corn Planting…
Weather: Warmer conditions starting late last week have fast-tracked crop growth. Tracking growing degree day (GDD) accumulation – Base 0 – for April and May in Huron county revealed 159 GGD in April and 244 GDD from May 1-25. Rainfall during the past week was sporadic with isolated thunderstorms resulting in flooded fields in one location and no rainfall…
Dry conditions have enabled rapid progress on planting. Some areas could use some rain to help crop emergence. The excellent weather conditions meant some districts were not represented on this week’s call, but those that were present estimated overall planting progress at 70-80%. Cereals, canola and grasses are all Base 0˚C GDD crops. The cool weather has limited GDD accumulation…
Temperatures over the past week have been significantly warmer than the week prior. Most of the province saw rain over the long weekend. In many areas this was welcome news, but much of southwestern Ontario received significant downpours and flooded fields were a common sight. Listen to the audio version below. Subscribe on iTunes, Google play or Spotify Corn Most of…
19 May 2020, 8:00 am Due to COVID restrictions, ag breakfast meetings will be paired and held virtually by video conference on the “zoom” platform in 2020. The fourth 2020 Ridgetown-Simcoe virtual ag breakfast meeting was held May 19 with 80 participants. Weather: Crop development has been slow coming out of several days of well below seasonal, and in some cases, record breaking…
Temperatures were well below seasonal for much of the past week due to the presence of an arctic air mass. Low night-time temperature records were set in many areas of the province with low temperatures between 0 to -7⁰C and snow fell overnight more than once. The widespread risk of the cold weather impacts is decreasing with the predicted warm…
OMAFRA Field Crop Team May 14, 2020 237 Comments Off on Cobourg + Winchester Agribusiness Breakfast Meeting Minutes – May 13, 2020Below-seasonal temperatures was the underlying issue in this week’s call. Peterborough County and Kawartha Lakes seem to be the most delayed areas in central and eastern Ontario. Retailers have been able to keep up with customer demands. There was talk of fertilizer backlog at the ports, but so far this has not affected the supply chain in central and eastern…
OMAFRA Field Crop Team May 13, 2020 339 Comments Off on Exeter + Mt. Forest AgriBusiness Breakfast Meeting Minutes – May 12, 2020The topic of conversation this week is “cold conditions”. Temperatures were well below seasonal for much of the past week due to the presence of an arctic air mass. Night-time temperatures reached as low as -8⁰C in some parts of southern Ontario. Many parts of the province experienced low temperatures between 0 and -4⁰C and snow accumulated in many regions. …
Air temperatures for the week of May 4th were below the seasonal average. This has slowed soil warming and while not hindering planting, it is delaying germination and emergence of seeded crops. But so far, the 2020 season has offered better planting conditions than the past number of springs. Cereals Most of the winter wheat crop looks excellent although the…
OMAFRA Field Crop Team May 7, 2020 275 Comments Off on Northern AgriBusiness Breakfast Meeting – May 6, 2020The morning of the meeting conditions were sunny across the north, but still cold. Generally, conditions have been sunny and windy so soils have been dry. A rainfall last week provided welcome moisture. There were no major concerns raised regarding grain crop planting and conditions, other than cold temperatures. Some regions are a week or two behind normal with the…
OMAFRA Field Crop Team May 6, 2020 334 Comments Off on Ridgetown and Simcoe Breakfast Meeting Minutes – May 5th, 2020The warm weather in the last week resulted in lots of corn and some soybean planting in the region, though wet soils on heavier ground has not been touched yet, especially in the Norfolk to Niagara region. Planting progress and conditions are much better than 2019. Some March planted sugar beet and carrot fields had to be replanted. Winter canola…
OMAFRA Field Crop Team May 1, 2020 367 Comments Off on Cobourg and Winchester AgriBusiness Breakfast Meeting Minutes – April 29, 2020People have commented that the mood is generally good out there and farmers are eager to plant. Field work started progressing quickly in the middle to end of last week. Manure is going out, fertilizer is going out and ground is being worked. Planting has started under very good conditions. The typical issues associated with soil texture are dictating how…
Corn: Planting began at the tail end of the week of April 20 and continued at a good pace until the widespread rain event on Wednesday/Thursday during the week of April 27th. Many agronomists have commented that soil conditions have been exceptional given the calendar date and what recent spring conditions have been like. As is typical, there is a…
OMAFRA Field Crop Team April 29, 2020 396 Comments Off on Exeter + Mt. Forest AgriBusiness Breakfast Meeting Minutes – April 28, 2020As a reminder, participants can join breakfast meetings by phone without using the Zoom app or logging onto the Zoom website by using the number provided in the breakfast meeting listserv. Corn planting began in earnest on Thursday and continued through Monday. Some producers are nearly done their corn acres, particularly on light ground in Huron County. There have been…