
By Sheila Phibbs
The Haldimand Press
HALDIMAND—Earlier this year, the conversation in farming was often about spring planting and whether the crops would get in on time. Fast forward several months and many fields in Haldimand are looking lush and green. The question of how productive these crops are will be answered in the coming harvest.
Kim Turnbull of Canfield reports that they were able to plant about 50% of their intended acres. With the ground still not fit in early June, they decided not to plant corn. They went ahead and planted soybeans on June 9 and 23, but the rest of the fields were too wet. Turnbull explains, “We did not plant any more as the risk was too great to get a decent crop of soybeans in the growing season left after that.”
According to Turnbull, soybeans have now finished their vegetative state and the plants are now filling the pods they have produced. Most soybeans are shorter than normal this year so a bumper crop, or an unusually productive harvest, is not expected. Weather will be critical for corn crops as pollination was later than normal. Warm weather is required to obtain full and mature cobs. He notes that the wheat crop was below average for yield, with slightly lower test weights, but the quality was good.