GUELPH — Just about every Ontario county saw 2021 yields well above the 10-year average, based on numbers from crop insurance enrollees, but good fortune didn’t land everywhere. Wet weather delayed soybean harvest and drought in northwestern Ontario led to yield loss.
Among the three big crops — corn, soybeans and wheat — Agricorp reports paying out almost $27.4 million in Ontario loss claims as of mid-April 2022, although this is way down from the 2016-2020 annual average of just over $114 million. Timiskaming led the way in 2021 losses in those crops with claims of $2.572 mil- lion, followed by Chatham-Kent at $2.393 million and Lambton County at $2.39 million.
The 2021 claims of Stormont, Dundas & Glengarry ($2.382 million) and Prescott-Russell ($1.766 million) ranked first and second in Eastern Ontario (as well as fourth and fifth provincially).
Southwestern Ontario counties round out the top 10 of claim makers in the province: Simcoe ($1.710 million); Bruce ($1.673 million); Essex ($1.047 million); Elgin (1.019 million); and Huron ($1.006 million).
Producers in Northumberland County filed Eastern Ontario’s third-highest combined claim ($534,000) — placing that county at fifteenth place provincially.
Agricorp reports that Production Insurance average actual farm yield for corn was 200 bushels per acre, much greater than the 10-year average of 173 bushels per acre. The program’s actual average farm yield for soybeans was about 53 bushels per acre, also well above the 10- year average of 47 bushels per acre. For 2021, Agricorp has paid out $105.3 million in approved claims across all in- sured commodities (with corn, soybeans and wheat being just one portion of that.) Of that sum, $68.3 million was to cover production claims, $9.2 million for re-plant and $27.6 million for other claims, including abandonment, forage rainfall, and hail spot loss payments. Unseeded acreage claims account for $200,000 of total claims.
Farmers have until May 16 to apply for Production Insurance for the 2022 year, update their coverage or add new commodities, or report zero acres for commodities they do not plant.
