Ontario's wheat harvest off to a slow start

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

by SUSAN MANN

The wheat harvest began in Essex County Thursday and even though yields have been disappointing so far they’ll improve as farmers north and east of southwestern Ontario begin harvesting.

Ontario agriculture ministry cereals specialist Peter Johnson says the range for yields in Essex is 35 bushels to 95 bushels per acre with the majority being approximately 60 to 65 bushels per acre. Average yields are 80 bushels per acre.

Essex was probably the hardest hit area in Ontario for May rainfall.  In June, “we had wheat die from excess moisture,” Johnson says, adding he’s never seen that in 26 years on the job.

Other areas that could see problems caused by excessive moisture include the Golden Horseshoe around Toronto, Niagara, and south Lambton County. But much of the larger wheat-growing region isn’t in as bad shape as Essex.

The crop quality is good with the only problem being test weight. “That’s related to the number of small, shriveled kernels we have from wheat plants that didn’t fill properly because they didn’t have a very good root system,” he says, noting there isn’t any fusarium to speak of in Essex and Kent. In Huron County and parts of Perth there are some fusarium hot spots.

Even though Johnson doesn’t think fusarium will be a problem this year, there’s enough of it in the crop that he’s watching it and encouraging growers to set their combines properly.

The harvest is slowly moving north and east with Elgin County farmers starting on a few fields this past Saturday and south Lambton growers beginning this past Sunday or Monday. Wheat harvesting will really be in full gear about July 20 with the bulk of the crop coming off from then until July 30.

There’s a lot of rust in the fields in most areas. But Johnson says in most areas it moved in late enough that it’s not a big factor in reducing yields. In areas, such as Grey, Bruce and Wellington, where the wheat isn’t as mature yet rust may have moved in early enough to have some impact. “It’s not going to be a significant negative but we probably will see a few more shriveled, shrunken and smaller kernels because of the rust.”

In other news, the wheat farmers deliver to Grain Farmers of Ontario will have to be drier this year compared to last year and pool prices have been announced. They’re available at the Grain Farmers website.

Grain Farmers changed the moisture level standard to 14 per cent this year from 14.5 per cent last year. Todd Austin, Grain Farmers marketing manager, says last year “most of the trade went to 14 per cent moisture.”

Grain Farmers made the change this year in response to requests from its customers. Many importing countries are really looking at a 13.5 per cent standard, particularly the United States. But Austin says an American 13.5 per cent standard is roughly 13.8 per cent in a Canadian scale.

About one-third of Ontario’s crop goes for export, he says.

To avoid incurring drying costs, farmers delivering to Grain Farmers must meet that 14 per cent moisture standard.

Austin says they’ve been getting calls from farmers looking for information on where they can deliver their wheat for Grain Farmers. Anyone looking for delivery information can call the marketing department at Grain Farmers (1-800-265-0550) and they’ll help direct farmers to delivery points, he notes.

Slightly more than one million acres were planted this crop year compared to 800,000 last year. BF