(Resource News International) — The number of acres that Ontario farmers plan to plant to soybeans this spring is expected to be
steady to possibly slightly higher than in 2007, according to
the Ontario government.
Ontario accounts
for roughly 80 to 81 per cent of Canada’s total soybean output.
“There is certainly a lot of optimism among producers
heading into this spring,” said Horst Bohner, a soybean specialist
with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) in Stratford. “As a result, there is definitely a lot of interest in
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How exactly the acreage pendulum swings will likely depend on price as the planting season nears as well as
weather conditions at the time of seeding, Bohner said.
“If we get into a wet spring and producers are unable to get
onto fields to plant corn, then there is a natural shift to
soybeans,” he said.
Producers in making their seeding decisions will also be
looking at the input cost of the crop.
“We know that fertilizer costs are very high, and because
soybeans require a few less inputs, I expect that this will draw
some interest to the crop,” Bohner said.
Producers in Ontario planted 2.24 million acres to soybeans
during the spring of 2007 with harvested area totalling 2.225
Based on information from the industry and through
conversations with producers, the area seeded to the crop in 2008
should be higher than what it was in 2007, Bohner said.
However, he cautioned it was still early and this
number could change dramatically ahead of seeding.
Peter Johnson, an OMAFRA cereal specialist at Stratford, said that based
on his findings from a cereals perspective, soybean area in 2008
would be little changed from the 2007 level.
Meanwhile, the area to be seeded to barley in Ontario was
forecast by Johnson to decline in 2008 to around the 165,000- to 170,000-acre level from more normal levels of 250,000-270,000
acres.
Oat acreage in Ontario in 2008 was expected to be in the
90,000-acre range compared with more traditional levels of
100,000-140,000 acres.
