Weekly in-season progress reports of the Ontario field crop landscape
Conditions Large swaths of the province saw rain early this week, which put a pause on a very productive planting window over the previous week and a bit. The forecast predicts slower progress due to more regular precipitation, which will provide some stress relief on fields that were starting to turn alarmingly dry. Northwestern Ontario […]
Winter Wheat Winter wheat is at Zadok’s growth stage 31 in many areas, especially if planted before mid-October. Early planted wheat has reached GS 32 in some regions and GS 33 in the deep southwest. Nitrogen applications are largely completed, even on heavier-textured soils in Niagara and Lambton County. The focus has turned to herbicide […]
Nitrogen applications in winter wheat are progressing throughout the province as breaks in the spring rain provide opportunities to get out in the field. Tillage and other field preparations have begun. Cereals Winter wheat fields in general continue to look good across the province with many counties reporting early planted wheat at GS30 and some […]
Due to cool temperatures and wet conditions (in some areas) over the past week, essentially no meaningful acreage of corn or soybeans have been planted. Most field activities thus far have been field preparation such as manure applications and tillage Winter Wheat Fields that went into last winter in good shape, with uniform emergence and […]
It snowed across much of the province on April 18th. Most areas have not completed much field work yet, though some of the southern-most counties have started applying nitrogen to winter wheat. Cereals While many parts of the province still have not had enough warm weather for accurate winter wheat stand assessments, in general earlier […]
Cereals Coming out of a wet fall, winter wheat conditions are variable across the province. Bare spots from standing water and poor drainage have been reported in some areas, especially on heavy clay soils. In many cases it may be too early to decide on whether to keep a “spotty” field. Higher wheat prices are […]
Planting In March 2021 Statistics Canada estimated Ontario farmers intended to plant 2.2 million acres of grain corn, 3% higher than the 5-year (2016-2020) average seeded acres of 2.14 million acres (OMAFRA Crop Statistics). Spring 2021 provided a great start for planting. While April generally remained cool, lack of rainfall provided excellent soil conditions with […]
Despite significant challenges including a prolonged wet fall, the average Ontario soybean crop was the highest on record. The average 2021 soybean yield sits at 51.6 bu/ac with 2.9 million soybean acres seeded. 2018 was the second-best year on record at 51.4 bu/ac. The 5-year average for Ontario is now 49 bu/ac. For comparison the […]
Fall 2020 Many experienced optimal weather in September and October of 2020 allowing for timely soybean and edible bean harvest. This provided an opportunity to get winter cereals seeded in their optimum planting window and into ideal conditions. Approximately 1,100,000 acres of winter wheat were seeded. The proportion of hard red wheat acres was down […]
Acreage, Planting and Harvest In 2020, Ontario dry bean acres were at their highest since 2007. This year, insured acres of dry beans totalled around 115,000 which is comparable to the 10-year average. Acreage of each market class declined in 2021, although the decrease in kidney bean acres was relatively small. Dry BeanMarket Class 2021Insured […]
Spring Canola There were about 33,000 acres of spring canola insured by Agricorp in 2021. Compared to 2020, total acres of spring canola decreased in regions south of Huntsville and increased in regions north of Huntsville. There were over 14,500 acres of canola seeded in Temiskaming District, which is a significant increase from 9300 acres […]
Winter 2020/2021 Conditions Overall, winter 2020/2021 was mild, with below average snow cover. Much of the province experienced a big thaw in March, losing most, if not all, snow cover. The rest of the month was dry. There was a good two-week window to frost seed in the middle of March. Some cover crop oats […]
Assessing Soybean Performance Soybean harvest has begun, and yields have generally been good. Many growers are reporting above average yields. But there are fields that underperformed. For those fields that yielded less than expected, it’s important to assess why in order to make good management decisions for the future. Sometimes we blame the weather or […]
There has been considerable discussion around tar spot disease in corn this season and of course many questions as well. Let’s go over some of these questions! Where did Tar Spot common from? In 2015, Tar Spot was confirmed in the Midwest US (Indiana/Illinois) where it was believed to have been blown in from Mexico […]
Managing phosphorus for improved water quality: best practices depend on where you farm Thanks to drier-than-normal spring seasons the past two years, harmful algae blooms in 2020 and 2021 in the western basin of Lake Erie have not been as severe as in preceding years. Phosphorus (P) loading to the lake, however, remains an important […]