Crop Improvement lauds ‘Wheat Pete’ for contributions to agriculture

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

The Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association’s honorary president for 2016 is a well-known, colourful figure in the province’s agricultural scene.

“This individual goes by a number of names; I’m sure you will recognize some of them. They are the ‘Wild Man,’ ‘Peter No-till,’ ‘Dr. Johnson,’ (and) ‘Wheat Pete,’” said Gord Green, the association’s 2016 incoming president, at its annual meeting in London on Tuesday. Green credited Peter Johnson for “without question,” contributing “greatly to moving agriculture forward in the province.”

Johnson, who retired in 2015 after 30 years with the ministry, his most recent assignment having been cereals specialist, called the association’s appointment “such an incredible honour.” Johnson, known as a showman, light-heartedly apologized for a moustache he was growing for a role in an area amateur theatre production. “I am the strip club owner,” he said, earning hoots from the audience. “They asked me to grow a ‘skanky’ moustache.”

Johnson credited a stint as director of the Wellington Soil and Crop Improvement Association early on in his career in agriculture for helping him to land his first job with the province.

“Harvey Wright was our soil and crops specialist,” he recalled, describing Wright as the “ultimate soil and crop specialist that ever was.” After one meeting when he peppered Wright with questions, Wright pulled him aside “and says ‘you know, I think you’re smarter than you let on and you should try and do something with your life. And then he offered me a job.”

Johnson, now an agronomist with Real Agriculture, thanked Ontario Soil and Crop for its support over the years for helping him find cooperators for his research projects and noted he was excited to see so many younger faces coming up in the organization.

Noting that the organization had a “huge” budget for programs, he urged conference delegates to not “lose sight of the fact that your grassroots, it’s the projects that you’re doing out there that are driving forward crop production, protecting the environment — you’ve really got to balance that and not allow that to get lost in all the programs. Because I’ve been involved with government long enough to know that they’ll bury you in programs if you let them.” BF