Small decline expected in Ont. corn acres

(Resource News International) — Alternative crop choices and high input costs were expected to cause a small decline in the number of acres to be seeded to corn in Ontario this spring, according to an official with the Ontario Corn Producers Association.

“I would say that while it is still very early in the spring, the indications are that the area to corn in the province will be down,” OCPA general manager Ryan Brown said.

The decline in seeded corn area will come as producers seeded record winter wheat acreage last fall, he said.

“Producers in Ontario generally rotate through winter wheat, soybeans and corn, and because there was a lot of wheat planted, there is only so much area left,” Brown said.

Brown estimated that Ontario will plant roughly two million acres of corn in the spring of 2008, which would be down only slightly from the near-record 2.1 million planted in the spring of 2007. The previous record was established in the 1980s when 2.25 million acres went to corn in Ontario, he said.

“In 2007, corn area climbed as winter wheat acreage failed to meet expectations and as conditions for corn in the spring were near perfect,” Brown said, noting that actual seedings surpassed the association’s target.

However, heading into the spring of 2008, the conditions have almost reversed: winter wheat area is a record and the conditions for corn may not be as great, given weather outlooks for an extended period of cold this spring, Brown said.

The fact that soybean acres in Ontario are expected to hold steady with last year also limits farmers’ ability to boost corn area, he said.

Brown said the high cost of fertilizers will also be a determining factor in just how much corn goes into the ground in Ontario this spring.

“A lot of producers are only now discovering just how high fertilizer prices have climbed, and that could result in some cropping changes still,” he said.

Generally, he said, Ontario farmers begin planting corn in May, with progress dependent on the region of the province. In some southerly areas of Ontario, he said, they’re able to begin seeding corn in late April, but that depends solely on soil temperatures being warm enough to plant.

Improvements in corn varieties have also made it possible for producers to get the crops in a bit earlier, while at the same time improving yields, he noted.

Ontario and Quebec account for roughly 97 per cent of Canada’s total corn production.