Winter wheat acres up in Western Ontario

Western Ontario farmers planted more winter wheat last year than any year since 2013, and most of it made it through winter in pretty good shape, says OMAFRA.

There were 840,000 acres of winter wheat planted in Western Ontario, up from about 550,000 acres planted in 2018. According to OMAFRA and Agricorp, as of May 19, there were 379 damage reports covering 21,425 acres (about 2.6 per cent of all planted acres) in Western Ontario. Some damage was due to excess rainfall, with about 360 acres damaged by frost.

Joe Kerr, in South Lambton, said he had very little winterkill this year. “The stuff that got planted on time wintered very well,” he said. “Anything after Oct. 12, she got pretty touchy. Our very last planted two fields probably had more winterkill than the rest of them combined.”