OTTAWA —The wet weather may have worried growers for most of 2017, but the corn crop rebounded as Eastern Ontario corn growers experienced their fifth-highest yield in 2017, according to Statistics Canada.
StatCan says Eastern Ontario yielded 151.1 bushels per acre in 2017, up from 145.3 bu/ac in 2016. The only years better were 2015 (a record 175.3 bu/ac), 2013 (152.2 bu/ac), and 2010 and 2006 tied at 162.9 bu/ac).
The numbers come from Statistics Canada field crop survey in November. A final yield estimate conducted in December is not expected to change significantly.
Central Ontario had a yield of 138.1 bu/ac, up from 115.9 bu/ac in 2016. That’s still significantly below the 149.3 bu/ac in 2014 and the record 154.4 bu/ac in 2010.
Although many agronomists were expecting a provincial yield record, the Ontario yield was a little short at 167 bu/ac. That’s the second-highest of all-time, but below 2015’s record of 169 bu/ac.
The 2017 soybean crop in Eastern Ontario was disappointing at 41.1 bu/ac. That’s down from 43.1 bu/ac in 2016 and a tremendous drop from the record 51.8 bu/ac in 2015. The 2017 yield is the second lowest of the past eight growing seasons.
Central Ontario soybeans rebounded significantly, but were still low as a whole. Central Ontario reported yields of 38.8 bu/ac in 2017, up from 32 bu/ac in 2016, but below every soybean yield from 2010 to 2015, when the region averaged 42.3 bu/ac.
The province averaged 45.6 bu/ac, up slightly from 45.5 bu/ac in 2016.
