Ontario corn predicted to be a record in 2022

Apr 06, 2022

Farms.com Commodity Research Team says Ontario farmers to plant a record acreage of corn in 2022.

By Andrew Joseph, Farms.com; Photo by Christophe Maertens on Unsplash

Per a recently conducted farmer survey, the Farms.com Risk Management team said that Ontario farmers will plant 6.271 million acres of corn, soybean and wheat combined in 2022.

While the overall acreage is lower than that of 2021’s numbers (6.3 million) and 2019’s record of 6.4 million, the team’s research suggests that 2022 will see a record planting of corn in Ontario of 2.27 million acres.

This projected number for corn is, according to the Risk Management team, 5.8 percent higher than 2021’s numbers per Statistics Canada, and higher than the five-year of 2.163 million acres.

The Risk Management Team’s data also suggests that Ontario farmers will plant more soybeans—up by 5.02 percent over 2021 numbers, and with over 3-million acres predicted, it will be the second-highest planting since 2019.

Moe Agostino, Chief Commodity Strategist at Farms.com Risk Management said he is, “not surprised to hear that seed companies are reporting higher corn seed sales. But higher corn acres are being driven by record high yields from last year—Agricorp’s final yield for 21/22 was 200 bpa (bushels per acre)—and higher prices.”

Agostino and the Risk Management team also feel that input availability will not be a problem in Ontario for the 2022 planting season, “But we are missing nitrogen supplies that need to be available for the side dress season in May/June unless you want to pay a 35 percent tariff.”

Ontario only has two-thirds of the capacity required to store all farmer fertilizer needs, according to Mosaic. Between three to eight cargoes of nitrogen have been sourced from Algeria, Nigeria, Egypt and the Middle East for the side dress season during May and June—fertilizer that prior to its invasion of Ukraine, would have been sourced via the Russian Federation.

According to Stephen Denys, Director of Business Management, Maizex Seeds, “The price of corn is keeping up with input costs and is still making corn attractive to plant. Even though prices are dictating to plant more corn acres, the heavy clay regions of Essex, Lambton and Haldimand could easily switch to soybean acres if we get a wet planting season.”

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Video: Why Invest in Canada’s Seed Future? | On The Brink: Episode 3

Darcy Unger just invested millions to build a brand-new seed plant on his farm in Stonewall, Manitoba so when it’s time for his sons to take over, they have the tools they need to succeed.

Right now, 95% of the genetics they’ll be growing come from Canadian plant breeders.

That number matters.

When fusarium hit Western Canada in the late 90s, it was Canadian breeders who responded, because they understood Canadian conditions. That ability to react quickly to what’s happening on Canadian farms is exactly what’s at risk when breeding programs lose funding.

For farmers like Darcy, who have made generational investments based on the assumption that better genetics will keep coming, the stakes are direct and personal.

We’re on the brink of decisions that will shape our agricultural future for not only our generation, but also the ones to come.

What direction will we choose?

On The Brink is a year-long video series traveling across Canada to meet the researchers, breeders, farmers, seed companies, and policymakers shaping the future of Canadian plant breeding. Each week, a new story. Each story, a piece of the bigger picture.

Episode 3 is above. Follow Seed World Canada to catch every episode, and tell us: Do you think the next generation will have the tools they need to success when they takeover? How is the future going to look?