The Rural Voice, 2002-02, Page 22would only amount to 40-45,000
acres of oats.
"It's a great market, but don't get
sold on it," he warned.
As well. meeting the
company's specifications is
difficult. Last year much of
Ontario's production was 44 pound
bushels but the company wants 48
pound bushels. "That sounds like
barley to me," Johnston said.
Noting the topic of his talk was
supposed to be on "what's hot" in
cereals, Johnston said the simple
answer was that cereals are not hot.
Acreage in all cereals was down last
year yet cereals were the only crops
that produced more than their
average yield with barley producing
116 per cent of normal yield and
spring wheat, 117 per cent while corn
yields were only 80 per cent of
normal. white beans. 70 per cent and
coloured and soybeans. 50 per cent of
normal yields.
Now, Johnston said, everybody
wants to grow barley but, he warned,
"don't bank everything on the yields
you got last year."
Always a fan of growing spring
T �1
y, c��v
`'°DurA SI"
C?
L. Smith
B.Sc.F. (Forestry), R.P.F.
Farm Woodland Specialist
570 Riverview Dr.
Listowel, Ontario N4W 3T7
Telephone: (519) 291-2236
Providing advice and assistance with:
• impartial advice/assistance in selling timber,
including selection of trees and marking
• reforestation of erodible or idle land
• follow-up tending of young plantations
• windbreak planning and establishment
• woodlot management planning
• diagnosis of insect and disease problems
• conducting educational program$ in woodlot
management
• any other woodland or tree concerns
R.T. BOLTON & SON
DEPENDABLE QUALITY PEDIGREED SEED
519-527-0455 or 519-527-0205 Seaforth
* NEW *
AC AYLMER - OATS
High yield food quality, disease resistant
ALMONTE- BARLEY
2 Row Feed - high yield
AC ALMA - BARLEY
6 Row Feed - high yield
SOYBEANS
OAC ATWOOD for 2675 C.H.U.
Early Export Quality Yellow Hilum
OAC AUBURN for 2775 C.H.U.
Top yield brown hilum soybean
ADV COMET for 2750 C.H.U.
New Brown hilum soybean
WHITE BEANS
AC MAST
New Upright Direct Cut
Excellent Yield
* All Are Non GMO
Varieties
SeEan
fltr ��r,l. //ft/ /f t,rr
OATS
AC RIGODON
High Yielding White Oat
AC STEWART
High Yielding Yellow Feed Oat
BARLEY
CHAPAIS
6 row Feed Barley - short straw - high yield
WHITE BEANS
OAC SPEEDVALE
Early Bush -type navy variety
ASPEN
Upright bush -type
Excellent for direct cut harvest
GRAIN MIXTURES
50:50 - 65:35 - 35:65
RED CLOVER AND
GRASS SEED MIXTURES AVAILABLE
18 THE RURAL VOICE
wheat, Johnston said the figures still
show it should be one of the more
profitable crops. If you can grow
milling quality wheat it will bring
$182 a tonne plus an $18 a tonne
protein premium. he said. In Ontario
the yield should be at least a tonne
and a half an acre. "We should be
hitting 60 bushels on spring wheat,"
he said. That brings a $300 gross
with lower inputs. Meanwhile you
can't get $7 a bushel for a soybean
crop even if it yields 40 bushels, he
said.
"If you're going to grow spring
wheat and you don't forward
contract, don't call me up and
complain that you can only get $4 (a
bushel)," Johnston said.
As far as varieties, Johnston said
the standard has been Quantum but a
new variety available from C & M
Seeds, still called just 97-606 but
with a name expected by spring,
seems to promise a yield as good as
Quantum but with better quality.
Johnston advised against growing
spring wheat after corn because of
the potential for fusarium infections
(spring wheat is more susceptible to
fusarium than winter wheat). And, he
said, always grow red clover
underseeded in wheat because it
helps increase the yields of
subsequent crops. If you're worried
about residue from the clover in
minimum -till systems, use a single
cut red clover, he urged. "They're
little plants but they have big root
systems."
Johnston warned of a new danger
for wheat crops, the appearance last
year for the first time of stripe rust. If
the temperature goes above 25
degrees Cit stops, he said so there's
not a real problem in Essex County
but in areas to the north like Grey
and Bruce, spraying with Folicure or
Tilt might be necessary.
While there was little good news
about crop prices in the
presentations, there was a brighter
note from Reesor on the crop input
side. The futures price for diesel fuel
is dropping, he said as is natural gas.
Since natural gas plays a big role in
the manufacture of nitrogen fertilizer,
farmers may be able to look forward
to reduced prices for both fertilizer
and fuel for planting time.0