As the map below shows, the bulk of this year’s more elevated DON levels (between 2 and 5 ppm) showed up in pockets in the southwestern part of the province, including Middlesex, Oxford, and Elgin counties, although some cases in eastern Ontario were also identified.
Farmers should evaluate their crops and consider harvesting and drying higher risk fields before infections worsen, the report said. Ear moulds and mycotoxins occur every year in Ontario and fields need to be assessed individually, it added.
“Even with 94% of 2024 samples testing below 2 ppm, growers should still be vigilant, as they may have individual fields with elevated DON.”
One of the worst years for DON levels in the Ontario corn crop was 2018. In that year, just one-third of the samples tested below 0.5 ppm, while 25% were at 5 ppm or above. A significant portion of the 2018 crop turned out to be virtually unmarketable, costing producers millions of dollars in lost sales. Farmers experienced another difficult year for DON in 2016, when less than half of the samples tested at 0.5 ppm or below.
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