Corn harvest underwayacross the countryside

Corn is being taken off this field in the Township of Norwich recently. Good harvest conditions have allowed harvest to progress well across the area, with almost all the soybeans off and about a third of the corn. (Jeff Helsdon Photo)

Jeff Helsdon, Editor

With combines making back-and-forth passes across fields and taking off the corn crop, it signals the beginning of the end of the 2026 growing season.

“We’ve had a fantastic fall so far,” said Ann Vermeersch, Ontario Grain Producers Director for District 5 (Elgin/Norfolk), about the harvest conditions.

She estimated that 99 per cent of soybeans are off, with any remaining from situations where the field were double-cropped with grain planted earlier. On the topic of grain, she said the winter wheat coming up looks to be in fantastic shape.

North of Tillsonburg, more of the corn is for silage for livestock feed, while south of town in Norfolk more is grain corn, for which harvest started about 10 days before this interview on Monday.

She estimated harvest to be about a third done in Oxford County and a little less in Norfolk.

“The quality of the crop looks okay,” she said. “There are some pockets of vomitoxin, which is a concern for the feed corn.”

Vomitoxin develops when the crop stays too wet in the field during flowering. Vermeersch noted weather was variable across the area earlier in the summer, with thunderstorms varying from road to road.

“Every farm got a different amount of rain,” she said.

Susan Blundell, director of communications for the grain producers, said corn prices on Nov. 6 were down about three per cent from a year earlier at $5.62 per bushel. Soybeans averaged $15.37 per bushel, up about 2.5 percent from a year earlier. All prices were Chicago futures.

“This year, good yields are being offset by relatively flat prices and higher input costs,” Blundell said, adding it’s early to get a total picture of yields.

Vermeersch also raised concerns about input costs, particularly energy costs. Diesel fuel was at an all-time high this summer, and lubricants, oil and propane were also up in price.

GFO completed a three-year study on the end use of the province’s corn and soybeans. It found that Ontario corn was used for animal feed (39 per cent), ethanol and industrial uses (33 per cent), food (15 per cent), and exports (13 per cent). If distillers’ grains from ethanol production are included, feed use rises to 53 per cent. For soybeans, the breakdown was exports (54 per cent), domestic crushing into meal and oil (37 per cent), and seed and on-farm use (9 per cent).