Ontario followed up a mostly dry September with more of the same in October.
As the map below shows, much of the southwest part of the province saw well below normal precipitation last month, with the area from about London in the west all the way to Ottawa in the east seeing less than 40% of normal.
The dryness – along with generally above normal temperatures – made for rapid corn and soybean harvest progress but was less than ideal for newly seeded winter wheat crops.
In the Oct. 30 update of his crop hotline, Real Agriculture agronomist Peter Johnson admitted that some of the Ontario winter wheat crop does look less than ideal at this point. However, he added local conditions are still better than in other parts of North America, particularly the parched US where Monday’s weekly USDA crop progress report pegged the national crop at just 41% good to excellent – the second worst rating on record.
“In North America, Ontario is really quite lucky because for the most part, we have enough moisture to get the wheat out of the ground – not everywhere.”
The latest monthly update of the Canadian drought monitor showed abnormal dryness or drought impacting 33% of the agricultural lands in the central region, which includes both Ontario and Quebec, as of the end of September. That is up markedly from just 10% at the end of August and 15% at the end of July.
The drought monitor has not yet been updated for October.
Johnson also reminded that spring rains – rather than fall weather - have a bigger influence on how the winter wheat crop ultimately turns out.
