This was the last spring breakfast meeting for the Cobourg + Winchester calls. A season recap call will be planned for late November or early December. Thank you to everyone who participated in these virtual meetings this spring. If you have any feedback, please contact Sebastian Belliard (Sebastian.belliard@ontario.ca), Ian McDonald (ian.mcdonald@ontario.ca), or Christine O’Reilly (Christine.oreilly@ontario.ca).   Weather  Rainfall has been variable across the region. Everyone…

This was the last spring breakfast meeting for the northern Ontario group. We would like to thank everyone that has participated in the first year of virtual breakfast meetings across the north. Please provide feedback (meghan.moran@ontario.ca) on whether you would like to continue the meetings next season and how we might improve the experience to provide more value to growers…

Approximately 52 people attended the 6th Ridgetown-Simcoe Breakfast Meeting. This was officially the last call for these regions this spring, though there was interest in continuing on for at least one more call – stay tuned for details. Overall, discussion focused on good looking wheat, tough-looking corn, herbicide injury concerns in soybeans and edible beans and emerging insect issues. While…

Weather Conditions The last two weeks have been dry, although some areas received rainfall and/or thunderstorms. Frost damage has affected some corn and soybean stands, particularly on muck soils in Renfrew and Glengarry. There have been isolated reports of hail damage around St. Isidore and on Wolfe Island. Forages First cut is underway across the region. Reports suggest yields are…

Soybeans Horst Bohner chaired the meeting and started with a summary of soybean emergence and replants. Some soybeans are taking a long time to emerge. Beans are still emerging from early planted stands (where soils were dry). Plant establishment and the need for replanting due to crusting is worse this year than in recent memory, especially in Eastern Ontario and…

Reports from the northwest and northeast remain positive and for most the planting season is done. A dip in temperature on the weekend did not result in any known crop losses. Most regions had been dry and have completed successful planting seasons and are now enjoying rain. Cochrane District has been cool and therefore soils have not dried out to…

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…

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…

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…

Below-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…

The 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.  …