Ontario growers enrolled in production insurance reported triple-digit Soft Red Winter wheat yields for the second year in a row in 2024.
Provincial crop insurer Agricorp said this year’s average Soft Red Winter yield of about 100 bu/acre was roughly 10% above the provincial average farm yield for crop insurance customers. (An average farm yield is a level of production that reflects a farm's yield history and is used as a benchmark to determine if their actual production is below average).
Agricorp also reported last year’s average winter wheat yield for the same growers at around 100 bu/acre, while the 2022 yield averaged around 98 bu/acre.
Although Hard Red Winter and Soft White Winter wheat is also grown in the province, Soft Red Winter makes up the vast majority of total planted acres.
As the map below shows, some of the strongest winter wheat yields in 2024 were reported in Chatham-Kent, Perth, Oxford, and Wellington counties. On the other hand, crops in Niagara, Halton, Grey, Peterborough, and Leeds and Grenville were among those that performed relatively weaker.
Ontario farmers insured just under 700,000 winter wheat acres in 2024, versus the total provincial planted area of about 960,000.
Statistics Canada last month reported the 2024 provincewide average winter wheat yield across all acres at 92.5 bu/acre, down from 97.9 bu the previous year.
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