Ontario Agriculture

The network for agriculture in Ontario, Canada

The "slow" pace of winter months has been keeping me exceedingly busy lately.  Between getting paper work in order for tax time, learning and repairing my new to me grain header, general repairs and maintenance I must find time to work a full time job.  With todays warm weather it was like torture to read the odd tweet about other farmers using the good weather to get equipment ready.  To make maters worse, the plant lost its computer network today, so it was a bit slow at times, those times I could have repaired the fuel leak on the tractor, but couldn't.

So this is when I scale back my grand plans to something more realistic under the heavy constraint of lost hours to another job.  I need only concentrate on what must get done, a few weeks of work that must be done before I start to word the ground for spring planting.  

I still have some room for a few more varieties of corn and soybeans, which will undoubtedly be very last minute, but my plans are in good shape otherwise.  The late fall and warm weather has made a few things easier, but waiting for a good frost to get the driveway solid for trucking out grain has resulted in half last years crop still on the farm.  The plus side, prices are making it worth my wait, at least until the next farm report comes out and makes some unrealistic claim to help all those funds who shorted grain and stand to loss big $$$.  

But to ease my troubles, I booked a day off.  So will I get all that maintenance done tomorrow?  No.   I will be off to the London Farm Show.  Its easy to get caught up or overwhelmed, but you still need to dream, and what better place than a big show with lots of overpriced - oversized equipment.  

My tweets with social media have made me a few...well friends, over the past months, and I expect to finally shake a few of their hands at the show.  One way or another I am going to have a good time.

Views: 173

Comment

You need to be a member of Ontario Agriculture to add comments!

Join Ontario Agriculture

Comment by Joe Dales on March 21, 2012 at 1:10pm

Hi Gus,  Everyone seems to have to juggle different responsibilities, especially during the spring and fall..nice article.  It was nice to meet you at the London Farm Show.

Have a safe spring planting season.

Take care,

Joe Dales

Agriculture Headlines from Farms.com Canada East News - click on title for full story

Bull Rider TJ Gray Wins PRCA Top Gun Award at 2025 National Finals Rodeo

Oregon bull rider TJ Gray captured the PRCA Top Gun Award at the 2025 Wrangler NFR, winning big and making history.

B.C. mink farmers drop legal challenge of ban, citing costs after four-year fight

Mink farmers in British Columbia and elsewhere in Canada are dropping their legal challenge over a pandemic-era ban in the province due to legal fees they say are “far beyond their means.” The British Columbia Mink Producers Association and the Canada Mink Breeders Association had been petitioning for a judicial review of the province’s ban on mink farming and had been challenging the policy decision, which dates back to November 2021. In a statement, the mink farmers say they remain angry at the move by the province, which they describe as driven by “an aggressive anti-fur lobby.” The farmers say they have fought the province unsuccessfully in several separate court attempts while no financial compensation has been offered to operators who had to tear down their farms. The B.C. Court of Appeal ruled in August that the farmers’ lawsuits have “no reasonable prospect of success” and dismissed a bid for damages against the province, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, and othe

Oilseed crushing and major grain deliveries statistics, November 2025

Oilseed crushing statistics Data on oilseed crushing are now available for November 2025. Deliveries of major grains Deliveries of major grains across Canada rose by 14.2% in November from the same month the previous year, totalling 5.6 million tonnes. Increases in total wheat (+21.0% to 3.4 million tonnes), canola (+11.1% to 1.6 million tonnes), and rye (+11.2% to 11.9 thousand tonnes) contributed to higher deliveries. Major grains include wheat (excluding durum), durum wheat, oats, barley, rye, flaxseed and canola. Focus on Canada and the United States Producer deliveries capture grain that is destined for a primary elevator, feed mill, crushing plant or flour mill. This includes grain elevators that hold grain before it is exported, as well as shipments to US markets that are not licensed by the Canadian Grain Commission. The imposition of tariffs by the United States may have an impact on producer deliveries of major grains in the coming months. In 2024, Canada exported a tot

Parrish & Heimbecker to buy GrainsConnect Canada

Further consolidation of Western Canada’s grain sector is just around the corner. Parrish & Heimbecker (P&H) is purchasing GrainsConnect Canada (GCC), a joint venture currently owned by Australia’s GrainCorp and Japan’s Zen-Noh Grain Corp. GCC was formed by the two international firms in 2015. P&H is getting four high-capacity grain elevators as well as GCC’s 50 per cent stake in Fraser Grain Terminal at the Port of Vancouver. The elevators are in Reford, Sask., Maymont, Sask., Huxley, Alta., and Vegreville, Alta. The 35,000-tonne facilities are each equipped with 134-car rail loops. P&H has a longstanding partnership with GCC through its shared ownership of Fraser Grain Terminal. The port terminal exports up to four million tonnes of cereals, oilseeds, pulses and other commodities per year. It can handle and discharge 120 railcars and has 70,000 tonnes of storage. It can load grain into vessels at a rate of 2,000 tonnes per hour. The purchase is expected to close in early 2026

Farmers face new challenge as group 14-resistant kochia spreads across western Canada

A new study shows that Group 14-resistant kochia has developed and spread rapidly across Western Canada. Group 14 is an important herbicide group for controlling the prolific weed because it already has widespread resistance to glyphosate, a Group 9 product, and has long had resistance to Group 2 chemistries. Back in 2021, the first known case of Group 14-resistant kochia was discovered in West Central Saskatchewan. In 2022, it was discovered in North Dakota. Charles Geddes, a research scientist in weed ecology and cropping systems at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Lethbridge is a leading expert on herbicide resistant weeds. His team designed genetic tests to identify Group 14 resistance using leaf tissue samples. This increased the speed and efficiency of identification. In a post recently published on Linked-in, Geddes has published a map showing instances of Group14 resistance across all three Prairie provinces. The greatest concentration is in the brown and dark brown so

© 2025   Created by Darren Marsland.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service