Snowy harvest

Last year we talked a lot about harvest and how the fall weather had impacted harvest across Ontario. I wouldn’t say this year was much different. The fall started off good in some areas of Ontario and other areas are still struggling to combine soybeans and corn.

My family farms in East Garafraxa township, just north of Guelph. We were lucky and got all of our soybeans off before Halloween- a really great start to our fall harvest. Next, we had corn and the weather was looking okay to start harvesting. But, we got rain, snow, ice, and a propane shortage that stopped our harvest very quickly. Now, a week out from celebrating Christmas with our family, we still have majority of our corn standing in the fields.

Farmers across Ontario are still working through their soybean and corn harvest. Many are working through the night, and drying their grains to meet the quality standards in order to sell. This is time consuming, costly, and a huge stress, going into what should be a festive and celebratory season.

If you see corn or soybeans still standing in the fields during your travel this season or encounter farm equipment on the roads- remember many of Ontario’s grain farmers are still working through the holidays to harvest Ontario’s grain crops. Understand yellow corn or brown soybeans are grains ready for harvest, not neglected crops and be patient driving around large farm equipment.