Edited: This story has been updated, including the headline, to reflect the public health district rescinding the original letter that blocked TFW movement into the health region until February 2, 2022. The Windsor Essex public health region has rescinded a statement invoking a section of the Reopening Ontario Act, 2020, to stop temporary foreign workers from… Read More
Ontario’s agriculture ministry is set to hire four new extension staff over three locations: Ridgetown, Kemptville, and Vineland. Job offers are currently posted for a soil fertility specialist, a cropping systems specialist, a livestock specialist, and a lead for horticulture sustainability. Newly-posted OMAFRA crop and livestock specialist positions at Ridgetown, Kemptville, and Vineland. Soil… Read More
The 2021 growing season was one of challenge and opportunity, and Ontario’s soybean specialist, Horst Bohner, says that it all added up to a record average yield for the province at 51.6 bu/ac over 2.9 million acres. The record isn’t a surprise, given that early field tour estimations pegged yield potential well above average. On this… Read More
How do you measure soil heath? On this episode of RealAgriculture’s Soil School, OMAFRA soil scientist and land use specialist Dan Saurette joins Bernard Tobin to look at some of the assessment tools available to farmers and the type of insights they provide. One of the most well known soil health tests is Cornell’s Comprehensive… Read More
Whether or not you’re farming healthy soils depends on many things, says Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs soil specialist Anne Verhallen. When asked what makes a healthy soil, Verhallen says that growers need to think first about the qualities of their soil, including properties such as soil texture — are you farming… Read More
The governments of Canada and Ontario will spend $2.6 million on Ontario-led agri-food research to develop new technologies, practices, and solutions for the sector. Funding through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP) will support programs focusing on enhancing food safety, developing innovative production systems, and increasing plant health and protection, the province says. Some of the… Read More
Soybean harvest is well underway, and farmers are pushing to get soybeans out of fields in order to get their next crops in the ground. That push could depend a lot on variety maturity dates and planting dates and in this Soybean School episode, Bernard Tobin joins Horst Bohner, OMAFRA soybean specialist, to discuss how… Read More
Tar spot is taking a bite out of yields in some Ontario corn fields but there is hope that growers will have effective tools to manage the leaf disease. Characterized by tar-like speckling on the upper surface of corn leaves, the fungal pathogen has been delivering yield hits ranging from 20 to 60 bushels per… Read More
Farmers and ranchers in the drought-affected areas of Ontario will have an opportunity to access up to $15,000 per farm for well drilling and pond construction projects. Applications for the Northwestern Ontario Drought Assistance Initiative will open later in September through Agricorp. The program will be retroactive to June 14, 2021. Ontario will provide up… Read More
Ontario will offer a maximum benefit of $220 per head of cattle for drought-stricken regions of the province through the newly-named Canada-Ontario Transported Feed AgriRecovery Initiative. The initiative is now accepting applications until November 1, 2021 and will provide emergency support to “producers who are incurring extraordinary costs to feed livestock due to drought conditions in… Read More
As soybean harvest gears up across eastern Canada, many growers are reporting uneven maturity in fields. On this episode of RealAgriculture’s Soybean School, Bernard Tobin catches up with Horst Bohner, OMAFRA soybean specialist, to find out why fields are not ripening or senescing evenly. The first potential explanation is uneven spring emergence, says Bohner. This… Read More
How does strip tillage impact a corn plant’s ability to access and take up nutrients? On this episode of RealAgriculture’s Corn School, Ben Rosser, corn lead at Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, looks at fertility research plots that compare how corn performs in both conventional tillage and spring strip tillage systems. In… Read More
The title of livestock sustainability specialist could infer that there’s a finite amount of time that the role is relevant. After all, shouldn’t we, at some point, reach being sustainable, and move on? The trouble is, there isn’t a universally agreed upon measurement of sustainability. As Christoph Wand, livestock sustainability specialist for Ontario Ministry of… Read More
Bale moisture probes are great once a bale is made, but trying to determine moisture of a hay swath is another challenge entirely. Most methods — including drying down a sample and doing some quick math — still take more time than is ideal, especially if hay is drying quickly and is intended as ensiled… Read More
Lisa Thompson, MPP representing the Ontario riding of Huron-Bruce, recently stepped up to lead the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. In Premier Doug Ford’s cabinet, Thompson has held two other cabinet posts, including Minister of Education. She says that even though she is only now moving into the agriculture post, agriculture and… Read More
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