WESTERN ONTARIO: Some growers see perfect corn, soybean planting season

By Connor Lynch
Lambton County crop farmer Brad Langstaff started planting corn on April 26. It was “absolutely early,” he said.

But a cold snap followed by rain delayed soybean planting and forced him to replant a bit of corn. Others saw planting interrupted by snowfall.

Everyone was ready and raring to start planting early. But big temperature fluctuations were the order of the day in Southwestern and Western Ontario, with producers seeing snow-covered fields dry out under a summer-like heat within two weeks.

Some Lambton producers had to contend with a heat wave that caused a lot of crusting. Langstaff figured he had one of the better corn stands with about 70 per cent of it intact, as other producers were racing around, doing multiple passes to try and break the crust. “But, I mean, all in all things look good,” he said.

In Middlesex County, grower Matt Vanhie finished planting soybeans on May 29. He’d gotten started on May 4, so he got around 1,000 acres planted in 25 days. Early-season conditions were fairly good, he said. Conditions were “perfect” by the last week of planting, he said.

West of London, grower Don Ciparis finished planting by June 1. But he got snow on May 8 and 9. Ciparis said producers are grateful that it wasn’t a repeat of last year’s disastrous season. So it was an average end date as corn and soybean planting were basically finished by the end of May.

Farther north in Huron County, grower Bruce Treble at Goderich had finished with his crop by June 1. Barley and oats were in by April 8; corn started going in on April 28; and soybeans got started in mid-May. That’s despite the fact that he’s on heavy clay. “Corn was perfect ground conditions, beans were perfect too.” A cold snap delayed corn planting for two days but didn’t impact his crop, he said.