Reading Time: 4 minutes We got here with our eyes wide open. Corn prices have been in a decline since August of 2012 when futures topped out at $8.49 per bushel. Now of course, we are all ready for the ride back up, and the question is how long this will take, and will corn prices in 2015 climb […] Read more
The market is looking for corn acres
Corn Guide: It may seem like the bears are in control, but global corn demand is amazingly strong
Once you get to the top…
Corn Guide: For the corn-growing Cantelon family, it just means you’re partway there
Reading Time: 5 minutes Wayne Cantelon is a lot like other farmers. He works a substantial number of acres with his father, brother and son, and he’s always trying to improve conditions and production. And just like a lot of other farmers, too, he’s hesitant to consider himself a leader or an innovator. In spite of that reluctance, Cantelon, […] Read more
The changing face of winter
Winter is getting shorter, and this Ontario study found the growing season is four weeks longer
Reading Time: 3 minutes Instead of calling it climate change, maybe the phrase should be “winter change.” For the last six years, Trevor Dickinson, professor emeritus and a team from the University of Guelph have been studying temperature records from across Ontario, most of which date back 70 years, with some as old as 145 years, and their big […] Read more
Pest Patrol: OMAFRA’s Peter Johnson retires
A valued colleague, @wheatpete, goes on to the next chapter of his distinguished career
Reading Time: 3 minutes Whenever I mention the name Peter Johnson to someone in agriculture, it always gets a reaction, be it a smile, a shake of the head or a roll of the eyes. That’s the price you pay for being passionate, unafraid to share an opinion and continually challenging the industry to step up their game. Not […] Read more
Ont. oat, barley growers approve GFO entry
Reading Time: 2 minutes Ontario’s barley and oat growers have voted just over three-quarters in favour of representation by the province’s wheat, corn and soybean growers’ organization. Grain Farmers of Ontario (GFO) confirmed Monday that eligible growers voted 77 per cent in favour of the move in a November vote conducted by the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission. GFO […] Read more
Vegetable grower starts small to grow big
Is diversification the best way to get a start today? As Nathan Klassen is learning, even if the answer is yes, that doesn’t make it easy
Reading Time: 6 minutes Nathan Klassen might not have grown up on a farm, but for as long as he can remember, he’s wanted to be a farmer, so in 2011, in the midst of North America’s record-smashing run-up in the price of farmland, he made that dream come true. Klassen was 24 that year, and he bought his […] Read more
Sharpen your pencils
It’s time for a hard look at your rental land. How much does it make sense to pay?
Reading Time: 5 minutes I know I’m not alone. the squeeze is on all across Canada, and everyone can point to sets of numbers like the ones I’m looking at in Ontario, with a short 2014 growing season and with off-the-combine corn well below $4 per bushel. So Country Guide asked the Ontario ag ministry’s farm business analyst John […] Read more
Ontario proposes deep cuts to farmers’ neonic use by 2017
Reading Time: 3 minutes Ontario’s new goal to ban most use of neonicotinoid pesticides in corn and soybean crops by 2017 has yielded bouquets from the province’s beekeepers — but left crop growers feeling stung. Following up on Premier Kathleen Wynne’s orders to her agriculture and environment ministers in their mandate letters in September, the province on Tuesday announced it will consult on […] Read more
Ontario eyes expanding production insurance
Reading Time: < 1 minute Ontario’s government plans to give itself more latitude to expand its farm production insurance offerings. The province said Wednesday it’s proposing to amend its Crop Insurance Act and grant itself authority to expand production insurance beyond just crops. That authority already is available to every other provincial government in Canada, the province noted. “Giving more […] Read more
PED pops back up in southwestern Ontario
Reading Time: 2 minutes A farrow-to-finish hog operation in southwestern Ontario is home to the province’s 64th on-farm case of porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED), its first such case in almost four months. The farm, in Middlesex County, reported “clinical signs” of the PED virus (PEDv) and submitted samples for testing Monday. Laboratory confirmation was received Tuesday, Ontario Pork said […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
