Ontario Agriculture

The network for agriculture in Ontario, Canada

In my previous discussion post I wrote about having access to capital or funds to leverage for more funds in order to start or expand the current operation.
On Sunday I found out that having access to money is not always the issue.
An acquaintance who farms a good 20 minutes away from our home base was contemplating what to do with his mother in-law's home farm. She current rents out the farm beside ours and no one lives in the house or uses the barn (for good reason). Through the conversation we talk about assisting beginning or young farmers. I mention - "I am interested in renting the land or buying the farm." The return comment was that I wouldn't rent the land for $xxx.00. I said - of course I would.
He said well... the current renter is really good to deal with (he rents in excess of 2000 acres and comes from god knows where and trucks all his products to somewhere else). Then I throw it back at him - so... how are we helping young people get started, such as myself or your own son, even when we are willing and able to pay the rent? (recall - the farm is right beside my dad's. No travel required). No comment. He was stuck on the current renter is a good renter (who is considered a larger cash cropper).
Maybe the next question at the local farmer meeting should be - we are asking the government to assist young farmers, what are we willing to do to help young farmers?
The government may well throw it back at us and ask - what are you doing to assist young farmers? Well... we won't let them bid for land, we won't let them rent land, we are reducing our sow herds,...

Views: 261

Replies to This Discussion

Just a thought, the current renter may be a young farmer.

Young farmers need economically viable farm operations to get involved with. These operations may be large or small. As a young farmer I have no interest in trying to start my own operation as there is much more incentive to get involved with established operations that have access to capital and the ability to leverage assets.
The current renter is well over 50 yrs young. So yeah - considering the average age of farmers is mid 50's he would be considered "young".
If it was a young farmer renting the land I would not be concerned at all.

Brett Schuyler said:
Just a thought, the current renter may be a young farmer.

Young farmers need economically viable farm operations to get involved with. These operations may be large or small. As a young farmer I have no interest in trying to start my own operation as there is much more incentive to get involved with established operations that have access to capital and the ability to leverage assets.

RSS

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

Maizex Seeds Breaks Ground on $8.8 Million State-of-the-Art Seed Corn Facility in Blenheim

Maizex Seeds has announced an $8.8 million investment in a new seed corn processing and packaging facility at its Blenheim, Ontario.

Pulse Market Insight #288

Crop Prospects for 2026 This seems to be the time of year when there’s a flood of reports looking back at the past year or gazing ahead to the new year. While looking backward allows a person to gauge their grain marketing performance, hindsight generally doesn’t provide much help for making decisions about the upcoming year. In fact, every marketing year is different. Making next year’s decisions based on last year’s successes or failures can be counterproductive. After all, acreage will shift and while there are always hopes for big yields, the odds of record output happening again in 2026 are very unlikely. In addition, global trade will also change (hopefully for the better) and affect next year’s market prospects. This is also the time of year when we start thinking about farmers’ planting decisions for next spring. There are many factors going into those decisions, especially crop rotation considerations, but prices and profitability are also important. Typically, we use basic

Tariffs, policy changes and a record crop: APAS reflects on 2025

The President of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS) described 2025 as a busy one with no shortage of challenges and some good news sprinkled in. Bill Prybylski did a year-end interview with Ryan Young, host of SaskAgToday and Ag News Director of 620 CKRM. You can find the full interview on SaskAgToday.com under the unfiltered section.   Prybylski said tariffs from the United States, China, and India - three of Canada's major trading partners - was the number one issue for APAS in terms of resources used to understand the impact on farmers and lobbying efforts.   Currently, China has tariffs on Canadian canola oil, seed, meal, yellow peas, seafood and pork. The U.S. currently has tariffs on Canadian lumber, upholstered wood products, and any product non-compliant with the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA). India has an import duty on yellow peas from all countries, including Canada. Canada has counter-tariffs on American steel, aluminium, and aut

Year-End Ag and Energy Markets Face Broad Commodity Pressure

Weekly market data for late 2025 shows year-end liquidation and global supply gluts pressuring soybeans, wheat, and crude oil, while gold reaches record highs.

China might start importing corn and wheat

What happens with the wheat market going forward largely depends on China, says an analyst. Canadian farmers harvested a record 40 million tonnes of wheat in 2025, including 29.3 million tonnes of spring wheat. The good news is that exports have been surpassing last year’s record pace so far in 2025-26. Chuck Penner, analyst with LeftField Commodity Research, thinks exports could hit a record 24 million tonnes, although it is still early days. The problem with this year’s wheat market is that there was record production by the top seven exporters. Minneapolis wheat futures have been relatively flat despite the global glut of the commodity, indicating that something is going on with the demand side of the ledger. Penner said China has not been getting enough attention. There are reports of significant quality losses with China’s corn and spring wheat crops. China’s farmers just finished harvest, and corn and wheat prices are already starting to rebound, suggesting that domestic s

© 2025   Created by Darren Marsland.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service