Wet weather during the last harvest season and mild winter conditions so far have made circumstances challenging for some area farmers. What they need now is snow, said Burford farmer Larry Davis, who is a provincial director for the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. “We do need snow cover for grain crops, to protect them from big swings in temperature.” Livestock … Read More

Top 10 Ways to Help Prevent Barn Fires Though barn fires are a year-round concern, most barn fires occur in the winter. The colder months are generally the time when feed and bedding storage is greatest, electricity use is high, and equipment repairs and upgrades are made. It is an important time to be extra vigilant. When it comes to … Read More

By Ian Madsen The reworked Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement between Canada and 10 other nations kicks in on Dec. 20. The federal government heartily endorses the deal it rescued after the U.S. administration abandoned it. But it concedes the deal itself may only increase Canadian gross domestic product by an estimated $4.2 billion, or about two per … Read More

By Diego Flammini Staff Writer Farms.com Two levels of government announced how they will help Ontario producers with high levels of DON in their corn. Today, the federal and provincial governments outlined three measures through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership. They will open an application process to help farmers recover some costs associated with DON testing. The Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association will handle the … Read More

By Alexs Sagan The Canadian Press Grocery stores have pulled romaine lettuce off their shelves and many restaurants have stopped serving caesar salads after the leafy green has been linked to an E. coli outbreak for the third time in about a year. The lettuce is more susceptible to E. coli contamination partly because of how it’s grown, experts say, … Read More

By Paul Jasa No-till November, a national campaign of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and others, encourages farmers to park their tillage implements each fall. It all started, says Neil Sass, an NRCS agronomist, when “I thought ‘Hey, No-Shave November is a good way to highlight men’s health, why not promote No-Till November as a way to highlight soil health?’ … Read More

Scott Miller, CTV London November 13, 2018 Farmers are calling it ‘catastrophic.’ A potentially poisonous mould called vomitoxin is threatening a large portion of Southwestern Ontario’s corn crop. Inconsistent testing has corn producers pulling out their hair, as to whether their corn is “passable” or “worthless.” Some farmers are having their corn turned away at grain elevators due to excessive … Read More

Grain Farmers of Ontario, the province‘s largest commodity organization, representing Ontario‘s 28,000 barley, corn, oat, soybean and wheat farmers, today expressed its disappointment with the Canadian government‘s mandated carbon tax on fuels and urged the government to stop implementation. Changes in the land, water and air have been noted by farmers for decades and new practices such as cover crop … Read More

Lauren Arva Staff Writer Farms.com Grain corn ear mould, such as Gibberella, is on the rise in Ontario this year, a Friday OMAFRA field crop report said. Industry representatives tested corn ear samples, collected from Sept. 21 to 28, for the survey. Overall, 60 per cent of tested samples ranked low (<2.00 ppm) for Vomitoxin (DON), a type of mycotoxin. Signs of … Read More

By Diego Flammini Staff Writer Farms.com The sun may be shining in Ontario today, but cash crop producers still find themselves looking for a window to harvest their crops. A recent stretch of rain and cooler temperatures forced some farmers to come up with concrete plans to harvest, regardless of field conditions. “My soybeans were ready to come off about … Read More