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Canada. Great weather for corn planting
01.06.2010 10:28 "Agro Perspectiva" (Kyiv) —
Weather conditions have been ideal for corn crops in Ontario with planting operations and development well ahead of normal, according to provincial corn specialist Greg Stewart.
Fair weather, such as above average temperatures and slight rainfall in April, made it possible for almost 75 per cent of corn crops to be seeded in Ontario before or by the beginning of May.
«We probably had the earliest and best start to corn planting ever,» said Stewart, who works for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs at Guelph.
According to Philip Shaw, author of the Market Trends column for the Grain Farmers of Ontario, most corn growers in Ontario were seeding throughout early to mid-April.
«It was an unusual period of dry warm weather,» explained Shaw.
However, things started to cool off for Ontario corn farmers in May. The weather got colder, with a frost on the morning of May 9 that damaged tissues of the already emerging corn crop.
«It was a fairly widespread ground frost. So all the corn that was nicely up at the two-leaf stage or one-leaf stage, most of that was frozen off,» said Stewart.
Production experts said the impact of the frost should be minimal on yield potential, but the damage will not be determined until the fall, Shaw noted.
«I cant see how you get (your crop) all froze off at the two-leaf stage and not have some impact down the road,» said Shaw, who has corn acreage in southern Ontario.
Weather conditions in the province started to turn around the week of May 17, according to Stewart. If the weather had stayed favourable throughout the month, he said, some corn growers would have had crops with four to six leaves already which is relatively unheard of.
«By Tuesday morning (May 25) everything will be beautiful again. Were just coming out of this frozen corn deal so leaves are just nicely (coming out),» he said.
Most corn crops in Ontario at the moment are within the three-leaf stage which, according to Stewart, is still a week above typical productivity for the province.
According to Statistics Canada the estimated 2010 acreage of corn seeded in Ontario was 1.8 million acres, compared to the 1.7 million seeded in 2009.
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