Ontario may set a new record for corn yields this year as growers in most regions report above average or bumper crops.
Greg Stewart, lead agronomist for Maizex Seeds in Ontario, said the corn harvest was 25 percent complete as of Oct. 15.
Early results are promising, and Ontario may break its average yield record of 172 bushels per acre, based on provincial data.
“We’re certainly going to rival 2010 yields and probably go past them,” said Stewart, who was the provincial corn specialist before joining Maizex this year.
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“It could absolutely be a record year for corn yields…. I don’t think there will be a county that will go below its five-year average. Our average is about 158 bushels per acre. There won’t be any spots in Ontario that come in under 158.”
Morgan Cott, an agronomist with the Manitoba Corn Growers Association, said the story is similar in Manitoba.
The corn harvest was 50 percent complete as of Oct. 15, and yields have been excellent.
“Generally very happy yields,” Cott said with a laugh.
“I don’t think there’s been any (reports) that have been disappointing. I think it’s all been above average to better than above average.”
Manitoba’s five-year yield average is 115 bu. per acre, but that includes the western half of the province. In recent years, corn growers in the Red River Valley and south-central Manitoba have generated yields of 120 to 160 bu. per acre.
Cott said some growers are harvesting 150 to 170 bu. per acre or higher.
“The averages are quite healthy.”
Many agronomic factors contributed to this year’s excellent corn yields. Producers planted earlier than usual thanks to a dry spring in Manitoba.
“And then rains at the right time,” Cott said.
“We didn’t have super hot weather, and it stayed mild at nighttime.”
Ontario conditions were nearly ideal for corn this year.
Stewart said soil moisture wasn’t too wet in May, there wasn’t in-tense heat or a drought in the early part of the summer and there was a spell of heat at the end of the growing season in Ontario.
“We got a really favourable grain fill period, in terms of moisture and heat,” Stewart said.
“Our temperatures for the last part of August were above average. It finished the crop off strong.”
Mark Huston, who farms in southwestern Ontario near Kent, said his region might be one of the few areas with sub-par corn yields.
His corn got off to a great start, but 380 millimetres of rain fell on the region in June, swamping fields and retarding crop development.
Corn yields around Kent are normally 180 to 200 bu. per acre and his fields are averaging 150 to 170 bu. per acre.
“The stuff we’re getting into now is looking a little better,” he said.
“It looks like it might come up to that 180 to 200 range.”
Ontario farmers seeded two million acres of corn for grain this year, according to Statistics Canada. Manitoba’s grain corn acreage was 230,000, down from a high of 380,000 in 2013.
