Southwest Ontario planting off to an unusually late start

From : Farm Credit Canada 

Higher heat units and warm seedbeds mean Ontario’s extreme southwest is usually the first region in the province to be planted with corn and soybeans. But this year it’s last, with planting finally wrapping up just last week.

The situation resulted from a cold April in the southwest – the coldest on record – followed by intermittent and spotty rain through most of May and early June. Although the rain wasn’t overwhelming, it was steady enough to keep many producers out of their fields. There would be a break for a couple of days, but not for long enough to dry out fields and warm up the seedbed.

“Producers in this part of the province are not used to being the last to get their crops planted,” says Dale Cowan, senior agronomist at AGRIS and Wanstead co-ops.

Some seed sewn into dry soil

Later in June, the rain stopped long enough for many fields to be planted.

Given the wet spring, producers expected rain to start again, but for the most part, it didn’t, Cowan says.

That meant some of the soybean crop, which is planted after corn, was sewn into dry soil and sat dormant. Although there was no moisture to carry disease, there was no seed growth, either.