The wet weather has farmers scouting for crop diseases
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Grain producers in Ontario are generally pleased with the progress of their crops given the planting delays caused by Mother Nature.
Mark Davis, who grows corn and soybeans and raises hogs in Lennox and Addington County, still has some soybean acres to plant but likes the way his crops look.
“The corn is all emerged. It looks good but mind you it’s very late,” he told Farms.com. “We’ve still got some soybeans left to plant, but the ones that we planted first are up and look good. We’re just waiting for the final ones to emerge.”
Given how wet the 2019 planting season was, Davis took precautions to ensure his crops are protected.
“We made sure our seed was treated with insecticide and fungicides,” he said. “I would presume there’s going to be more disease pressure too.”
Like Davis, Dale Foster, a cash crop grower from Perth County, is content with his crops given the uniqueness of the planting season.
“Well, everything is a month behind,” he told Farms.com. “But everything is in and everything looks good. I just used the seed I had and worked at it.”
Fred Helwig’s crops in Grey County are also emerged.
But the excessive moisture in his fields will rob him of some soybean yield.
“I have 80 acres where it was quite ponded, and it looks like they only hold their breath for so many days,” he told Farms.com. “I would estimate that 12 of those acres will not come back.”
Farmers should be happy for any crops that grow this year, he said.
“The mentality is to be thankful for whatever we can get,” he said.