2016 was a year of extremes
By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com
OMAFRA released its 2016 Soybean Seasonal Summary on Thursday, giving soybean producers a general synopsis of the growing and harvest seasons.
According to the summary, 2016 was a “year of extremes,” as farmers were forced to manage an indecisive Mother Nature.
“Incredibly dry conditions in some regions resulted in poor yields or total crop failures in the most extreme cases,” the summary said. “In contrast, a dry spring with few diseases, followed by timely rainfall in August resulted in amazingly high yields in parts of southern Ontario.”
And farmers tend to agree with OMAFRA's assessment.
" (It was) extremely dry for several weeks after planting for us," said Bob Wickett, a producer from Essex County. "Many sleepless nights wondering if there would be a crop. When rain finally came in August it fels like a season saver (but we) worried it was maybe too late.
"Heard (about) a few real disappointments though, too. I'm amazed there weren't more given the early season drought-like conditions. "There's some pretty impressive genetics in some of the beans for them to hang on and produce the way they did."
In some of the best areas, averages of 70 bu/ac were reported, with some yields as high as 100 bu/ac. The current provincial estimate, based on 56 per cent of reports from insured growers, is about 44.8 bu/ac.
For producers who planted double crop soybeans, some achieved between 35 and 40 bu/ac when planted after winter wheat harvest.
“One of the reasons double cropping is becoming more successful now than 20 years ago is due to higher yielding short season varieties,” the summary said. “Plant breeding efforts for northern climates, especially western Canada, have resulted in better short season varieties that can be seeded later in the growing season.”
According to the summary, 2.715 million acres of soybeans were seeded in 2016. This year’s crop is expected to be the third largest in history.
2014 was the largest soybean crop on record with 3.06 million acres seeded, followed by 2015 with 2.90 million.