Nelson Zandbergen
Farmers Forum
OTTAWA — It’s been a wetter than average growing season, and some Southwestern Ontario fields are showing the strain while others are doing quite OK.
Lambton County crop farmer Emery Huszka said that his own 800 acres of field crops — mostly corn and soybeans with some cereal rye — appeared to be “good to very good” so far. “But we’re a long way from harvest.”
His county this year has “some incredibly beautiful looking crops and some very sad-looking crops” and — because of challenging conditions in the spring — some unplanted “non crops,” he said on Aug. 6.
It all depends on soil type and if a farm fell into one those unlucky pockets that got doused with each passing rain cloud. He estimated that “maybe 50 %” of Lambton County was “adversely affected to some degree and some of it to the very extreme” by this year’s weather.
He pointed to an area south of Highway 402 as particularly hard done-by. “I would say draw between Bright’s Grove and Watford. Those poor folks seem to be in line for most of the rain events at the worst time.”
Sandier soils were faring better this year, he observed. But Huszka is concerned that plant roots aren’t going deep enough and won’t stand up if gale-force winds blow through this fall. “It’s happened before that you get a hurricane come in around the end of October, and all of a sudden the corn fields are lying flat as a pancake.”
He’s also concerned about the hot, humid weather fostering disease in the field. “Most of us farmers are putting fungicide on, but it’s really difficult to muster up the energy to put more money into a crop that’s worth $3.50 to $4 less per bushel.”
A year like this, he added, demonstrates the need for a robust risk management program to back up farmers.
By the beginning of August, Environment Canada Senior Climatologist David Phillips observed that Ontario as a whole had received between 25 and 75 % more rainfall than an average growing season so far and there has been less drying time between rainfall events. He noted that Toronto had its longest stretch of days without rainfall — only five days — before a major July 16 storm temporarily flooded out the Don Valley Parkway, a main artery into the city from Hwy 401.
Perth County crop farmer Kyle Martin said his fields looked good, although regular rainfall “made it a pain to get things done sometimes.” Harvesting his 800 acres of winter wheat would normally take about two weeks but was stretching into three weeks this year, he said. Quality and yield were both good, he added.
A more dire outlook was offered by St. Thomas cash-cropper Jay Curtis, who tweeted drone photos of sparse-looking fields in his Elgin County area and predicted “billions” in crop insurance payouts. “We got absolute shitty crops around here,” Curtis wrote in a post on X. “Agricorp is gonna burn through some cash this fall.”
An Agricorp spokesperson acknowledged that the weather has posed “some challenges” for some Ontario growers this year. “That being said, it’s still early in the season,” Stephanie Charest said by email at the end of July. “Weather conditions can change and crops can often recover. We are monitoring the situation and working closely with farmers to keep them informed on how their coverage works in their individual situation and walking them through the claim process.”
The corn and soybean acres planted in 2024 are on par with previous years, according to Charest. Ontario farmers planted 1.57 million insured corn acres and 2.28 million insured soybean acres by deadline this year. Agricorp extended the planting deadline by a few days in the counties hardest hit by rain-related delays this spring.
