Written by Brandi McCabe, Dufferin SCIA Secretary

Spring fever is starting to hit, as I sit here with the sun shining in and the temperature slowly creeping above zero. Winter projects are starting to get tidied up, and an attentive crop plan in place. Our family has been discussing when to tap trees for our spring hobby syrup run which means the spring rush is close by. Another good indication of spring is attending Dufferin’s AGM.

This year we hosted our AGM Via Zoom early February, with an amazing turn out. The morning started with a quick overview of programs available through Soil and Crop by Lois Sinclair, followed by Anne Crowe from Grand River Conservation with programs available in the Dufferin and surrounding areas. Peter Archer joined in next. Peter is known in the agricultural industry as a farmer, market enthusiast and “the guy with big opinions and bad tweets” (his words not mine). Peter gave our members some insight of seasonal trends that would help in marketing old crop and new crop commodities. Peter gave us his marketing, 5 step strategy; 1. Determine your estimated production 2. Determine your production cost 3. Set a profit goal per acre 4. Calculate a target price 5. Take action and place a target bid. Make lots of little movements that will allow you to hit the highs of the market.

Peter Johnson, aka Wheat Pete joined in next giving us some insight to wheat. With the high market prices we all are crossing our fingers that the tough planted fall wheat pulls through the winter. In order to ensure we have a profitable wheat crop we should be taking Pete’s advice and getting our feet on the ground to see the situation. Tough wheat will require early N as soon as the snow melts and the ground conditions allow. This situation could look like March applied N at 50 LBS N & Sulfate applied on the frost. “Good” wheat, planted early and lots of tillers going into the winter will not require the early applied N as it could result in lodging if applied early after coming out of dormancy. Pete also suggests applying all sulphur needs upfront as wheat needs it early.  Pete gave an overview of the falling numbers in wheat this past harvest. The issue isn’t necessarily the number but more the consistency of the falling number.

Natasha Alexander, from Ingredion Canada spoke on the production of their facilities. Ingredion has two wet corn mills in Ontario, one in London and the other in Cardinal. These facilities purchase 10-15% of Ontario’s corn crop and produces corn sweeteners, glucose and fructose. Natasha took us for a virtual tour of the mill discussing each step of the process. Ingredion also sells bi-product made throughout the process such as dry grain distillers, wet gluten and so much more.

To end the AGM we had Mark Robinson from Ontario storm chasers chime in on his outlook of the growing season. Mark stated that he sees climate change happening and the effects from this change are challenging especially in the agricultural industry. There are more isolated weather events happening which make it harder to predict. Some effects we could see are drought, extreme precipitation and heat waves. We have seen an increase of daily average temps and suspect that that will continue to rise, which means an increased growing season. The change in climate may not all be bad.

Cheers to warmer days ahead. Wishing everyone a healthy safe planting season.