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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
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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.
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"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.
Please call for more information.
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