Philip Shaw

It is about that time of year again. By the time you read this I might be planting corn even though rain has inundated southwestern Ontario over the last few days. Sometimes in this part of the world March can be so beautiful we start thinking of planting corn quite early. In fact, I have…

It is that time of year again, when I pull my machinery out of the shed. There are always a few surprises, with much depending on the condition of things when I put it away last fall. The fall of 2018 was incredibly difficult because of the harsh weather as well as the DON outbreak…

Here we are again in April. It’s a time of anticipation in Ontario and Quebec farm country as planters are being pulled out of sheds across Eastern Canada. Your loyal scribe does the same thing, and after I blow the dust off, I always try and harken back to the problems I may have had…

It has being about nine years since I bought my last farm. At this age now I don’t think I’ll be buying another one, but you never know. Sometimes opportunity knocks, but of course in 2019 land prices are a little bit different than they used to be. It’s hard to imagine that we used…

It is hard to believe but we are losing February tonight and turning into March. In this part of Ontario winter so far has been kind, albeit I say that lightly because there are still three weeks of winter to go. The slow march to spring continues and won’t be long before corn planters are…

  Wintertime is not my favorite time of year. When I was younger I really enjoy cross-country skiing and playing hockey and basketball during the Canadian winter we have here in southwestern Ontario. I must say, as I grow older I like winter less and less. However, this current winter in southwestern Ontario has not…

One of my favorite topics of discussion is agricultural price discovery. It’s not as sexy as a new tractor or cover crops, but to me it is one of the most fascinating things to think about in the realm of agricultural marketing. When does the price of corn make sense? When does the price of…

It is cold in southwestern Ontario with some flooding taking place in my local area. February can still be very wintry and I’m sure there is lots of it left. This coming week I will be flying to Ottawa to speak on the grain markets at the Eastern Ontario Crop Conference. I hope the wintry…

Recalibrating The VOM Discount Grain Economy Into 2019 In 2019 we are hoping for good things. I think I say that all the time especially on Instagram. Farming is always a challenging profession, but some years are a little worse than others. I’m sure if you were a cattle producer, you never wanted to see…

I returned from a short vacation last week, which took me partly through the United States. That always means that you have to clear customs, something that we do often here in southwestern Ontario. However, this time was different because American TSA agents, who were not being paid because of the government shutdown in the…