Location, location, location!
The traditional rallying cry of real estate agents everywhere has been transferred this season to Eastern Ontario farmers, indicating who are likely to recover from relentless cold, wet weather and who are not.
"It’s all about location," said OMAFRA field crops specialist Gilles Quesnel, indicating the chance remains for most farmers to pull a decent growing season out of the morass. However, many remain frustrated and dubious following a next-to-impossible planting season.
"They’ve been working twice as hard for about half as much return," Quesnel said.
Surprisingly, Quesnel still sees fair to good potential for about 90 per cent of the corn and soybean crops in the Eastern region. The key to recovery is an abundance of heat units between now and harvest time.
"It’s not like we haven’t been there before in Eastern Ontario," he said.
However, some pockets of over-saturation aren’t likely to rebound at all; as examples, Quesnel named areas around Morrisburg, Maxville and in Leeds and Grenville counties.
"Planting was awful for some, a disaster. The stuff has just floated away."
For some farmers, all that’s left is insurance payouts. Farmers across the province were given to July 10 to pay their AGRICORP crop insurance premiums, making them eligible for seasonal and unseeded acreage benefits where they were unable to get on the land.
The payment deadline came after the AGRICORP Crop Insurance Committee decided to extend
the final planting date for crop insurance and market revenue confirmation to July 5.That extension applied to white and coloured beans, processing sweet corn and soybeans.
Terry Daynard of the Ontario Corn Producers’ Association said AGRICORP may allow the seeding of cover crops used for fall forage on land which is now unseeded and eligible for related benefits; however, permission should be secured from the agency on a case-by-case basis before planting occurs.
Estimating that 70 per cent of Eastern Ontario crop lands are covered by AGRICORP, Len Davies, the agency’s sales manager, said this season’s wet conditions have already led to applications for unseeded benefits from farmers who couldn’t get on the land.
After harvesting, he expects many more claims for losses suffered due to weather; also covered is damage caused by insects and disease.
"We’re not like some other insurance companies," Davies said. "We don’t dismiss weather damage as an act of God."
In Eastern Ontario, soybeans and corn are the main cash crops always used as the measuring sticks; calling it a "sleeper", Quesnel pointed to hay as another major, often overlooked crop now in trouble, with long-term management and revenue repercussions... "a lot of dollars at stake".
"The quality is very poor. The moisture content is way too high. While all that rain made for a good potential crop, farmers were unable to get it off until it was over-mature."
In addition, in their desperation to make the cut, many farmers went out on soggy fields, rutting and damaging them to an extend depending on soil types. With all of that moisture, Quesnel warned against the high possibility of spontaneous combustion in stored hay.
"Most farmers are probably going to have to provide protein supplements; but there really isn’t a satisfactory substitute for good quality hay."
If all that isn’t enough, Quesnel said most farmers should consider a nitrogen boost of about 30-50 pounds per acre to replenish corn fields where much of the original allotment may have been washed away.
Depending on status of crops, the nitrogen can be either knifed in or broadcast in urea or ammonium nitrate form, the specialist said. With 30-50 pounds, there’s little risk of overdosing in fields where more nitrogen than suspected has remained in the ground.
Quesnel summed up the season this way: "There’s little possibility for 180-bushel corn. We won’t bust the bins but we’ll still get something."
The main concern now with soybeans is moisture prompted soil-born diseases attacking root systems; while they won’t totally destroy crops, they can cause patching and bring down the total yield: "It’s time to get the weed control on," he said.
If it’s any solace to farmers in the east end of the province, Quesnel was commenting early in July after driving from Morrisburg to Ridgetown; he said farmers all along the way are in the same boat... probably literally, in some cases.
"Only when I got to the Ridgetown area did I see corn that was shoulder high. Most of it - as in the east - was about 10 days behind schedule."
Unlike in the east, many farmers in South Western Ontario had warm, dry weather early on enabling them to get crops in on time, Quesnel said. At this stage, that difference shows dramatically.
Without enough heat units, eastern corn will remain stunted and the yield will be way down. Most of it will turn out as No. 5 or sample grade, good only for feed.
From the Archives:
Front Page, July 2000
