GUELPH — Unseeded acres in Ontario this year were way down from the five-year average.
As of Aug. 24, of all insured acres, claims were made for only 5,494 acres that were unplanted, said Ontario’s crop insurance provider, Guelph-based Agricorp. Compare that to the five-year average from 2013-2017 of 35,000 acres. Payments only went out to 51 farmers vs. the five-year average of 180, totalling $700,000, far below the $5.5 million average.
Southwestern Ontario grows the most crops in the province and took the brunt of the damage. Western Ontario, from Wellington to Grey, had 424 unplanted insured corn acres, the most of any region. Southern Ontario comparatively skipped by with only 40. Corn may have gotten planted in the southern region, from Oxford County and south, but plenty had to be replanted. Southern Ontario had by far the most replanting claims for corn acreage at 4,020, about 90 per cent of all replanting claims in Ontario.
Corn was a cakewalk compared to soybeans. Southwestern Ontario claimed 2,676 acres of unplanted insured soybeans or nearly half of all the unplanted insured crop in Ontario. The southwest also made claims for 54,855 acres of replanted crop or more than half of all the replanted insured crop in Ontario.
