Behind the Lines - December 2015

Monday, December 7, 2015

Any farmer with a mind for marketing who walks into a grocery store and sees five cobs of corn on a Styrofoam tray wrapped in cellophane, with a "Product of the United States" label, must wonder what that is about. In this issue, we bring the story of an Ontario-based, family-owned company that grows sweet corn up and down the eastern side of the continent, literally turning the sweet corn market on its ear.

Freelancer Jim Algie was already planning to write about Rouge River Farms and describes his own "Eureka moment" about the farm's product last spring. "I was shopping for groceries in my local Metro store in Owen Sound and noticed a display of Rouge River corn. So I bought some, thinking that I'd better see how bad this stuff really is before I get too far into the story. It was actually very good. Fresh, delicious sweet corn in Ontario in April; who would have thought it possible?

"Certainly not me, having been raised by a mother who always said, 'don't bother bringing it home if you haven't actually seen the farmer picking the corn.' I grew up in a house where the only fresh corn on the cob came in August. Mom believed that it wasn't worth eating after about two hours' storage."

Not only does Rouge River Farms' business plan fly in the face of the eat-locally and reduced-packaging movements because it's packaged and shipped across a continent, it also gives retailers what they want – a tidy product that can be put onto shelves easily and is bar-coded for easy checkout. And that's a lesson that farmers need to take to heart.

Algie's story of how that product came to be – taking sweet corn sales from a roadside wagon, a school money-raising project that many farm families can relate to – and turning it into a major value-added business with hundreds of employees spanning the eastern half of a continent and two nations starts on page 10.

We don't tell our columnists what to write about. So when consulting agronomist Pat Lynch and certified crop adviser Dale Cowan both submitted articles on dealing with herbicide-resistant weeds, we know it is a big deal. Pat's column starts on page 24; Dale's column on page 25.

Also about crops, there's a solution to last month's challenge about wheat planting. Crop Scene Investigations starts on page 22.

Generally speaking, in the farm belt of Ontario we had great fall weather for harvesting corn and soybeans and for planting winter wheat. But what lies ahead? Phil 'the forecaster' Chadwick writes about the cause and effect of the Pacific Ocean warming El Niño, which might be the strongest ever seen if weather monitors are correct. Phil's weather column can be found on page 30. BF

ROBERT IRWIN & DON STONEMAN