A look at how the 2022 Ontario yield has performed for soybean, corn, and wheat. See the results below.
By Andrew Joseph, Farms.com; Photo by James Baltz on Unsplash
The 2022 Great Ontario Yield Tour organized by Farms.com is a two-week data tour (corn kernel and soybean pod counting) from August 15-26, 2022, at Derks Elevator in Chesterville, and a second leg culminating on September 1, 2022, at the Discovery Farm in Woodstock.
Greg Stewart, Maizex Agronomy Lead and Chief Agronomist, and Moe Agostino, the Farms.com Risk Management Chief Commodity Strategist went into the fields to evaluate the soybean and corn crops to provide their best guess as to how the Ontario crops will do upon harvest.
And now, Ontario farmers are busy bringing in the last remaining harvest for soybeans. So, how did soybean, wheat, and corn perform in 2022?
The Farms.com Risk Management team believes that 80 percent of the 2022 soybean harvest is complete in Ontario, and it is not surprising that the results show mixed yield results.
Stewart has reported an estimate of around 48-50 with the final tour estimate at 50.3 bushels per acre (bpa).
He noted that for those farmers whose crops got plenty of moisture, the yield was better than expected.
For those soybean fields receiving less moisture than normal, crop yield was below average—though he hedged his bet by stating that yields could also have been negatively affected by tougher soils such as sand and/or clay.
The Farms.com Risk Management team estimates that about 25 percent of the corn harvest has been completed in Ontario.
Again, Stewart says yields are coming in better than expected from what he is hearing from Maizex Seeds farmers. Stewart indicated there are reports of high yields in eastern Ontario (250, 260, and 280 bpa) which received excellent moisture this year at critical times during the 2022 planting season.
Agostino added that he believes, “We might just still achieve the second-largest corn crop in Ontario with a final #ONYield22 tour average at 186 bpa.”
Agronomy Consultant Peter (Wheat Pete) Johnson is also reporting that it could be a record wheat crop in Ontario. He added that Mother Nature has provided the perfect conditions to plant wheat after the 2022 soybean harvest.
Agostino said that record high prices and a good basis with a lower Canadian dollar combined with lower input costs mean that wheat acres are taken away from soybean planting in the Spring.
However, he cautioned that buying fertilizer in Ontario remains a challenge, implying that next Spring’s fertilizer prices will have the final say as to what gets planted.