Lambton County farmers planted a lot of wheat this fall, thanks to the weather.
Farmers were able to complete the soybean harvest on time and fields were left in good shape, creating the opportunity for a large amount of wheat to planted before winter arrived, said Dave Park, a Sarnia farmer and Lambton’s director with the Grain Farmers of Ontario.
“It’s probably the biggest wheat crop in Lambton County in the last five years,” he said.
“For two years in a row farmers struggled to get wheat in the ground.”
But conditions improved this fall, allowing those farms to get wheat back into their crop rotation, he said.
The cooperative fall weather also helped improve safety since farmers were able to load wagons and trucks in the fields, “and weren’t tracking mud on the roads,” Park said.
Now that the harvest is complete, Park said farmers want to thank motorists for sharing the roads with them over the last few months.
“It’s a team effort by everyone out in the rural areas,” he said.
Wheat harvested in Lambton earlier this year beat expectations created by poor conditions last fall that delayed planting.
“It didn’t get off to a good start, and didn’t look good in the spring,” Park said.
But, the weather that followed was ideal.
“It turned out to be an average, to an above average, wheat crop, all be it a small one because there wasn’t many acres in the ground,” Park said.
Wheat yields in Lambton were approximately 75 to 100 bushels per acre, and the quality was good, he said.
“We were happy as farmers, for sure, about that.”
Good weather continued during the soybean harvest and farmers were able to get the crop off in good time, Park said.
It was an average crop in Lambton, with the yield ranging from 45 to 53 bushels an acre, he said.
This year’s fall weather also helped the corn crop.
“It actually did a lot of its drying in the field, which helps the bottom line,” Park said.
Farmers needed to spend less money this fall on natural gas or propane to fuel corn drying.
“Last year you could have been paying upwards of 60 cents a bushel to dry your crop down, and this year it was probably closer to 30 cents per bushel,” he said.
“Last year was a tough corn year.”
Along with facing higher drying costs, the 2014 corn crop was hit by early frost, Park said.
The yield from this year’s crop was about the same as 2014 but the quality was better, he said.
But, corn yields in Lambton were variable this year, because of two weeks of heavy rains in some areas of the county.
“Some corn never recovered from that,” Park said.
Grain prices are currently low, he said.
“Margins are tight again for farmers, there’s no question.”
But the low Canadian dollar has helped Ontario growers since grain futures prices are set in U.S. funds at the Chicago Board of Trade.
“That has been our saving grace,” Park said.
“Mind you, when we go to buy equipment, that’s based on U.S. dollars too,” he added.
Posted in: Headlines