Ontario Grain Farmer Magazine is the flagship publication of Grain Farmers of Ontario and a source of information for our province’s grain farmers.

Grain Farmers of Ontario

March 2021

In this issue:

Web Special

Digital resources

TOOLS FOR ONTARIO CROP FARMERS

March 2021 - SEVERAL NEW DIGITAL tools are available to help grain farmers maximize their profitability and help manage tasks in the field and in the farm office. COMBYNE Combyne is a free Canadian grain trading app platform…
Web Special

An optimistic outlook for grain farmers

BMO ISSUES PROMISING REPORT

March 2021 - ACCORDING TO BMO bank, agriculture continues to be a bright spot in the Canadian economy during this pandemic, and farmers in Ontario and beyond are expected to fare well in terms of receiving excellent grain…
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Field observations

PREPARING FOR SPRING 2021

March 2021 - April 30, 2021 Cold, wet and in some cases snowy weather has stopped spring field work and planting by mid week. Damage inspection from the below zero temperatures experienced midweek had farmers and agronomists checking…
Web Special

Storage flexibility in DON-infected corn

GRAIN BAGS OFFER GOOD ALTERNATIVE TO IMMEDIATE SHIPPING

March 2021 - GRAIN BAGS OFFER Ontario farmers another way of reliably storing vomitoxin-infected corn, according to a recently concluded Grain Farmers of Ontario-funded study. Participants in the research project say bag storage is a flexible, practical alternative…
Field observations

PREPARING FOR SPRING 2021

March 2021 - AFTER A SUCCESSFUL 2020 growing season for some of the province, many are looking to 2021 to be a great year. Crop prices are ranging in levels we have not seen in years, winter wheat…
Cover crops

AGRONOMY BASICS FOR BETTER MANAGEMENT

March 2021 - WHEN SOIL MANAGEMENT specialist Anne Verhallen thinks of agronomy, she thinks of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs’ (OMAFRA’s) Agronomy Guide for Field Crops. It’s a comprehensive resource with specific seeding, tillage,…
Virtual connections

FROM THE CEO'S DESK

March 2021 - IT’S HARD TO believe it was a year ago that the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic. When the declaration was made on March 11, we were just days away from…
Cropside: Soil crusting

AGRONOMIC INFORMATION FROM ONTARIO'S CROP SPECIALISTS

March 2021 - IN SPRING 2020, rain followed by hot dry conditions resulted in surface crusts that created challenges in some areas for emerging seedlings. Some fields were re-planted entirely, while others came through with thin but acceptable…
Herbicide carryover

PREVENTING CROP INJURY

March 2021 - the 2020 growing season saw many reports of crop injury due to herbicide carryover. Some crops grown in Ontario are very sensitive to carryover, particularly some horticulture crops. When growing crops on land that could…
Winter barley

OVERCOMING CHALLENGES

March 2021 - THERE HAS BEEN a renewed interest in winter barley for many reasons. Known for its early maturity compared to winter wheat, this crop provides an opportunity to double crop soybeans for those in longer season…
Making hay

THE BENEFITS IN A GRAIN ROTATION

March 2021 - FORAGE ACRES IN Ontario have decreased by about 40 per cent in the last eight years, with just under 1.5 million acres planted in 2020. But there are good financial and environmental reasons to consider…
Plant growth regulators

MODIFYING THE CROP

March 2021 - PLANT GROWTH REGULATORS (PGRs) have been used commercially in agricultural production dating back to the 1930s and 1940s. However, if one goes back even further, it is found that modifying plant growth by applying something…
Preventing lodging in milled oats

EARLY RESEARCH OBSERVATIONS

March 2021 - CROP QUALITY, YIELD potential, and susceptibility to lodging can have significant impacts on the profitability of milled oats — a crop common to Northern Ontario, and one to which food processors mandate a high standard.…
GrainTALK for March 2021

AN UPDATE ON GRAIN FARMERS OF ONTARIO NEWS AND EVENTS

March 2021 - NEW STRATEGIC PLAN Grain Farmers of Ontario has released a new Strategic Plan. It outlines our commitment to our core values: our farmer-members, our team, our community, our results, our innovation, our honesty and integrity.…
Yield and quality in wheat

NITROGEN RATES

March 2021 - MANY WHEAT FARMERS across Ontario have increased their nitrogen rates in recent years with resulting increases in yield. Whatever nitrogen rate you went with last year, however, Peter Johnson, agronomist with Real Agriculture, cautions you…
Water management

IRRIGATION CASE STUDY

March 2021 - Water is a precious resource. The success of farm businesses and the health of our families depend on having a clean and abundant supply. Historically, agricultural technology has allowed us to manipulate the quantity and…
Managing the weather

UTILIZING DATA

March 2021 - THE WEATHER IS one aspect of farming which farmers have no ability to change but are forced to work with come what may. Wind speed and direction can impact when and if you can spray…
Are broadband investments enough?

BRINGING RELIABLE INTERNET TO RURAL ONTARIO

March 2021 - AS THE EVENTS of 2020 brought the need for reliable internet into ever starker relief, both the public and private sector announced substantial investments to Canada’s rural broadband infrastructure. But will such investments actually solve…
AgriSuite tools

HELP GET THE MOST OUT OF NUTRIENTS

March 2021 - IT CAN BE challenging to determine exactly what nutrients each crop needs and when. Equally challenging can be establishing the value of manure or other land-applied nutrients and how to best maximize that value on-farm.…
Farm appraisal 101

CONVERSATIONS WITH BUSINESS EXPERTS

March 2021 - (J.M.) WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES REQUIRE A FARM APPRAISAL? (B.W.) Farm appraisals are most often used for lending purposes. Banks and other lending institutions rely on an appraisal as a form of security to make sure they…
Lights, camera…entrapment

SILO THE MOVIE

March 2021 - THE SILVER SCREEN can uniquely promote a deeper appreciation of difficult, controversial topics — for example, the Holocaust (Schindler’s List), racial and sexual exclusion (Green Book), and paranoid schizophrenia (A Beautiful Mind) — through character…