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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2009-03-18, Page 3• The Huron Expositor • March 18, 2009 Pugs 3 ews Harsh winter can take a toll on crop season Brian, Shypu1a A winter of extremes -- lots of snow, two 50 -year floods and re- cent frigid temperatures -- is likely to make its presence felt this crop season. Soil erosion, lodged crops for corn that never got harvested last fall. and the potential of cold damage to winter wheat and alfalfa are being thrown at farmers by Mother Na- ture. Peter Johnson, a Stratford -based crop expert with the Ontario Minis- try of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, said the frigid cold worries him. "I don't like these -22C nights at this time of year without the snow cover -- it's not ideal," he said last week. Winter wheat and alfalfa, dormant and able to withstand extreme cold in late fall and early winter, enter a second stage of dormancy in Febru- ary where they are less tolerant to cold. Without a blanket of snow to insulate them they're vulnerable to "cold injury," Johnson said. The plants don't die but sustain enough damage to hurt yields. - Farmers curious about how their over -winter crops will do can ex- periment by bringing some of the plants inside, Johnson said. The best ones to pick are those from ex- posed knolls in the field. "Just put it in your basement or your heated shop," he said. After a week to 10 days, shake off the soil and look for new root growth. -- "If "If yo u're seeing nice new white roots, then that's the key -- Bob's your uncle and life is good," John- son said. "If you're not seeing those nice new roots, then we may have a little bit of an issue." In the Stratford area, the first snowfall was Nov 18. As of March 3, there had been 341 centimetres of snow, almost one metre more than the average of 244 centimetres. The early and heavy snow was responsible for leaving as much as Linda Reasons Design Consultant Hob Smyth Design Consultant Wut Coact kitchens . . And Muth More • Kitchens . • CustomVanitics • Entertainment Units • Home Offices PROFESSIONAL INSTALLATIONS CUSTOM DESIGNS & COUNT OPS Visit Our Showroom! 50 West St. Goderich . 519.440-0352. 1-866-440-0352 Goderich & District Chamber n40minierre • Business of the Year Award 2006 • '1%1 61: weOcusitkttl6Mabtdv.on.ca 1'4,1 S i # % ! t t i + ! 10 per cent. of Ontario's corn crop -- about 160,000 to 180,000 acres -= in the fields that were toe wet to harvest. "We certainly weren't anticipating leaving that corn out in the field," Johnson said. Corn can survive a winter un- damaged as long as the snow is below cob level on the stalk. But if the snow gets above the cob, when it melts it grabs the cob like an "an- chor" and pulls it to the ground, Johnson said. "It's almost impossible for the stalk to withstand that much stress. So what we have now is a whole bunch of corn in the snowbelt ... and it is lodged extremely badly," he said. Farmers are lucky if the corn fell sideways across rows because it's still harvestable, albeit with more likelihood. of mould problems and yield losses in the 10-20 per cent range. But if it fell parallel to the rows, it's almost unharvestable. "In worst-case scenarios losses ap- proach 80 or 90 per cent," he said. The blanket of deep snow may also have set up wheat for disease ' problems with snow mould (which can leave plants slimy, brownand rotted) and dwarf bunt (kernels are replaced by '"bunt balls" which contain masses of black spores with a foul odour. The bunt balls rup- ture at harvest, contaminating the grain.). "We could have them but I don't anticipate them to be a major is- sue, Johnson said. Warm spells led to spring-like thaws that caused 50 -year floods Dec. 28 and Feb. 12. L.I.F.E. Exercise Progrtms (Living Independently Through Fitness & Exercise) SEAFORTH. E) ERCIS,E Tuesdays and Fridays 9:30-10:30am March 17 - May 29 11 weeks - $42.00 Seaforth Agriplex Instructor: Grace Corbett CHAP IIP Free Community Blood Pressure Clinic Wednesday, March 25 9 a.m. -1 p.m. at the Huron • ommunity Family Health Team, Seaforth For Info cal! Cheryl or Nadine at 519-482-9264 or 1-800-563-8246 L.I.F.E. is a program of Town . & Country Support Services . * 1` t i a • . y' a a } r "From a soil erosion standpoint, it wasn't as bad, even though it was quick, as it might have been," Johnson said. Soil erosion is a nemesis to crop production "Once you lose that top soil it's just about impossible to get back," he said. On the plus side, the thick blan- ket of snow before the thaws pre- vented the ground from freezing solid, so the soil was able to absorb considerable moisture .to a depth of about one metre to 1.5 metres. "Soil moisture reserves are in very good shape at this point," Johnson said. The crop expert, who was in the midst of holding crop production seminars around the province the week of March 2, encouraged grow- ers to• plant red clover over their wheat crops if possible even though it can be hard to grow... "The research is incredibly clear: if we can keep red clover in the ro- tation on our winter wheat crop or on our spring wheat crop, we end up with significantly more organic matter in the soil, significantly more corn yield, soybean yield and wheat yield in the rotation." "There is just so many positive factors to having that red clover in the rotation that we just cannot give up trying to get it to grow," he said. On March 1, Environment Cana- da predicted what has been a cold- er and snowier winter than normal in most of the country will continue for March including Ontario. • NOTICE Piece- note that the Health Canada Advisory on RetroFoam Insulation that ran previously had an incorrect telephone number. The correct number should read 1-800-443-0395. 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