Breakfast meetings bring crop agronomists and industry professionals together during a key time in the growing season to discuss current field conditions. These meetings are a great opportunity to ask questions, work through field challenges, and share clear, consistent messages for growers across the industry. Participants are welcome to purchase their own breakfast and the meetings offer a valuable chance to connect and network with peers.
The meeting locations and meeting dates for all breakfast meetings are listed below. For the 2026 season, the Ridgetown meeting will be live-streamed and in-person. The Northern meeting will continue as a virtual meeting. All other meetings will be held in-person only and cannot be livestreamed because they are held in restaurants.
If you cannot join us for breakfast, you can catch up on the discussion in the summary notes below (posted later that same week).
Conditions Overall, April rainfall has been slightly higher than average. This week, cold and wet weather slowed crop and planting progress. Eastern Ontario received above average rainfall, while most of the rest of the province had average rainfall. Winter Wheat Weather conditions have caused winter wheat growth to stall. The crop continues to look very […]
Winter Wheat Winter wheat stands continue to look excellent with very high stem counts (up to 144 stems/sq ft) in the southwest. Most fields have received at least one application of nitrogen, with many opting to add sulphur. Fields that have not yet received a nitrogen or sulphur application are showing signs of yellowing. Manganese […]
Weather The weather late last week was unseasonably warm, with maximum temperatures exceeding 24˚C in most of the agricultural regions of the province. Crops already in the ground responded well to the heat and growth progressed quickly. With more typical single-digit temperatures this week, crop development is expected to slow, and staging should become more […]
These notes provide a collective summary of information highlights from the weekly breakfast meeting minutes with local crop consultants in Ontario. This week’s summary includes notes from meetings in Exeter, Simcoe and Winchester. Spring conditions have arrived across Ontario this week and some tillage and field preparation has started in fields with light-textured soils. Manure […]
Quotes of the week: “Zero weed seed return is the GOAL!” – Dr. Peter Sikkema “Rotation is the 1st R, not the 5th.” – Peter Johnson The first agribusiness breakfast meeting of the season and first in-person since 2019, was held in Ridgetown on April 4, 2023. The Ridgetown Ag breakfast meetings will alternate between […]
Conditions Regions of Eastern Ontario saw heavy rainfall throughout the evening of June 21. Reports of anywhere from half an inch (15 mm) in the Eastern Lanark area to close to 5” (127 mm) of rain in parts of Renfrew were the kickoff to the last breakfast meeting for the region for the 2022 growing […]
Cooler than normal conditions marked the last week, with ideal temperatures for grain fill of winter wheat. A heat wave takes effect this week, with temperatures over 30 C in store for Tuesday and Wednesday. Soybeans Soybean growth has been slower than normal due to recent cooler temperatures. Late April planted soybeans are at the […]
Wednesday, June 15th was the fourth and final northern agribusiness breakfast meeting for the 2022 planting season. Thank you to everyone who was able to attend these meetings and share what is happening on the ground across the north. Ben Rosser, OMAFRA Corn Specialist, shared some research results on optimizing nitrogen application rates, and the […]
Weather Rainfall amounts ranged from 18 to 35 mm over Sunday-Tuesday. For the first time in a long time, the rainfall fell more evenly over a wide area. In the east central area this was welcome as things were getting dry. To the south and east where more rainfall has occurred over the spring, it […]
The morning of the meeting, rain was still falling and had been since the previous evening. Reported rainfall amounts at the time ranged from 0.5- 1.25 inches, with some in southern counties (Lambton, Middlesex, Bruce and Grey counties) reporting over 2 inches. Cereals Herbicide applications are underway in spring cereals and reports indicate these crops […]
Wednesday June 1st was the third virtual Northern Breakfast Meeting. The last meeting will be held on Wednesday June 15th at 8:30am EDT and we will be joined by Ben Rosser, OMAFRA Corn Specialist. This week we heard from Horst Bohner, OMAFRA Soybean Specialist. Horst touched on a few soybeans topics, as follows: Seeding Depth […]
Synopsis: The majority of the crop has been planted, with most of the remaining acres in the heavy clay soils of Lambton, Essex, Haldimand and Niagara. Growing conditions are good resulting in rapid crop growth. Sporadic rains over the region have left many area soils dry with hopes of rain later this week. Fields of […]
Conditions While power has been restored to most areas that lost it as a result of the storm, cleanup and assessment continues in some places. It was intense wind (tornado or not) that caused the most damage. Most of our region was affected in some way, but the worst impacts are localized in concentrated areas […]
The week of May 17-24 saw a dip in temperatures, followed by the return of high heat and humidity late in the week, culminating in a derecho (a widespread, long-lived windstorm) on Saturday, May 21st that caused widespread downed trees and power outages across southern Ontario. Rainfall from Saturday’s storm was not significant (1-15 mm […]
Wednesday May 18th was the second virtual Northern Breakfast Meeting of the season. Thanks to Chloe Langlois, OMAFRA Agriculture Development Advisor – Timiskaming, for chairing the meeting. There will be 2 more meetings, according to the schedule below. After short updates from the OMAFRA specialist listed, the group will discuss any current cropping questions and give […]