Niagara growers receive soybean planting deadline reprieve

Monday, June 20, 2011

by SUSAN MANN

Agricorp has extended the soybean-planting deadline by 10 days in the Niagara area for this year only because the region has been hard hit by excessive rain.

The deadline was extended for Niagara Region, Haldimand County and Tuscarora Township in Brant County to June 30 from June 20. Michael Smyth, Agricorp senior industry specialist, says the extra 10 days will “allow better preparation of that soil bed. The crop should be better off by going into a better seedbed.”

There’s a lot of reseeding taking place, he notes, so the planting deadline extension also gives farmers a chance to do their reseeding.

The normal planting deadline for the surrounding area was already June 30, he notes.

Smyth says Agricorp very rarely changes its deadlines. A number of factors are taken into account when the provincial crown corporation sets planting deadlines including economic impacts, crop conditions surrounding the deadlines, viability of the crop and sustainability of the crop insurance fund.

To maintain their crop insurance coverage, grains and oilseed farmers must report all acres by June 30, including the farmers in the areas where the planting deadline was extended. Any insurable crop has to be in the ground by June 30, he explains. BF