Ontario's corn plantings are up

Friday, July 3, 2015

by SUSAN MANN

Ontario’s grain and oilseeds farmers have turned to corn this year, planting 2.1 million acres after portions of their winter wheat crop planted last fall was killed by brutal winter weather.

The province’s corn plantings are up by 9.6 per cent compared to last year when 1.9 million acres were planted. This year’s Ontario corn plantings matches the five-year average, according to Statistics Canada’s June principal field crops report.

Barry Senft, CEO of Grain Farmers of Ontario, says more corn was planted this year because of difficulties with winter wheat. “Some of the wheat got ripped up this spring and went into corn. And some of the acreage that might have gone into winter wheat because of the late soybean harvest went into corn too.”

Ontario’s increased corn planting numbers mirror the national numbers. Canadian farmers reported planting 3.3 million acres of grain corn this year, up 5.7 per cent from 2014, the Statistics Canada’s report says.  

For Ontario, barley, oats, and spring wheat plantings were up, while soybeans and winter wheat were down. Canola stayed the same at 35,000 acres.

Barley acreage increased to 115,000 acres this year compared to 110,000 acres in 2014, while oats jumped significantly to 130,000 acres this year compared to 70,000 acres last year. Spring wheat plantings were also up considerably to 130,000 acres this year from 80,000 acres last year.

Barley, oat and spring wheat planted acres were up because farmers switched to those crops instead of planting winter wheat, Senft says.

Soybean acreage in Ontario declined to 2.9 million acres this year, a 4.6 per cent drop from the just over three million acres seeded last year. Nationally, 5.4 million acres were seeded to soybeans and that’s 2.5 per cent below the record high of 2014, Statistics Canada says.

The country’s decline in soybean acres planted was “driven by decreases in Quebec and Ontario, which typically account for around 70 per cent of total acreage sown in Canada,” the report says.

Winter wheat acres in Ontario after winterkill are pegged at 615,000 acres this year, down from 775,000 acres in 2014. BF