Despite overly dry conditions through late spring and early summer, Ontario’s 2024 winter wheat crop appears to have defied expectations with good yields and good quality.
For Marty Vermey, senior agronomist with Grain Farmers of Ontario, the standout factor was the crop’s ability to withstand extended dry conditions. Deep roots, well-timed and dry autumn planting conditions and a mild winter allowed for additional growth in some regions and gave the crop an early boost.
Why it matters: Good yields and good quality winter wheat are a boon for export market development.
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“We ran across dry periods between May and the middle of June. We were really nervous about that dry period during grain fill. The benefit of much of the province being dry during pollination was we didn’t have much fusarium,” says Vermey.
“The crops went down deep and really hung on. We’ve had a pretty good wheat crop as far as yields and agronomics go.”
Not all yield data has been collected, but Vermey anticipates the industry will be “nicely surprised” given the anecdotes and reports seen so far. Yields are likely to be particularly strong in areas where grain fill occurred a little earlier, and where late-June rain fell. Regarding the latter, he says the province’s northeastern regions may have benefited most.
“I think we’re going to be nicely surprised on where our yields are going to end up … I’m surprised we didn’t have some gut wrenches where the crop kind of dies on us. But it’s amazing how resilient the crop can be. I think that’s what surprised a lot of people,” Vermey says.
Yields in the southwest were also surprising. According to Dale Cowan, senior agronomist with Agris Co-operative, cold snaps and spring frost provided a few early season scares. Frequent and ill-timed rains, in addition to some elongated dry periods, also put a damper on overall quality.
However, the crop appears to still be above what marketers seek.
“Disease pressure was minimal. The 30 days before and 10 days after heading, there wasn’t disease pressure there. We didn’t get wet weather until after maturity,” says Cowan.
“Not to say we didn’t see a yield bump from using fungicides … We probably had just enough nitrogen to get what we got. We were probably marginal in our nitrogen availability. We had some wheat starting to show deficiency during grain fill.
“But again, all in all, we weren’t setting provincial records, but we ended up better than expected. It’s not often you hear Essex County farmers talking about 100-bushel year averages.”
Dana Dickerson, manager of market development and sustainability for GFO, says soft red varieties have been a particularly good news story with respect to quality.
Approximately 230 of the expected 350 to 400 samples tested for the organization’s wheat harvest survey have been received so far. Of those, about 94 per cent of soft red wheat can be graded within milling range.
Like Vermey, Dickerson says no major issues with fusarium have been reported. In some cases, she says lack of disease may be a partial result from growers opting to harvest early and dry their grain.
“We thought it would be a record at 1.34 million acres. It’s still high, but actually down at 1.1 million acres, which is close to the previous record year, which is 2021. That’s nine per cent higher in average planting over the last five years, but still not a record,” says Dickerson.
Overall, she believes the strength of Ontario’s winter wheat crop is positive news for overseas customers. GFO and Cereals Canada delegates are headed to South America on a market development mission this autumn.
