Philip Shaw

  It has dawned hot and dry in southwestern Ontario as very late crops finally get on the road to maturity. Timely rains will surely be needed this summer to get these crops to the finish line. Remnants of the toughest spring on record are all around me, as many fields didn’t get planted. There…

Canada Day dawned hot and dry last Monday. It is one of my favourite holidays and I often spend it near Fort Malden south of Windsor Ontario. For those of you who don’t know, the British built Fort Malden in the late 1700s to defend against the Americans. It was a very important Fort during…

First things first, I got planted this past week. Radical management was at work all across the deep SW of Ontario as farmers scrambled to get crops in the ground before the July 5th deadline. As of today, farmers are still at it, planting into the now dust as Mother Nature has finally put the…

I think that the sound of raindrops is growing a little bit old. However, that continues to happen in southwestern Ontario as farmers all face the challenge of our careers. I still have hopes of getting planted, but I very much understand how everybody feels. I’m there with you, just like a lot of others…

In my career I have never been a big one for planting soybeans early. Even though I live in the most southern part of Canada, planting soybeans about June 1st always was good for my soul. I never liked planting into cold soils, I always like that hot ground and hot temperatures come June. Little…

Well, here we are. At times like this we don’t talk about it, but it has been a brutal 2019 spring for getting any crop. As we look into June, most of the Ontario corn crop isn’t even close to being planted and many of our plans have been compromised as we juggle management decisions…

It is quite a battle planting corn this year. I got started last weekend a good three weeks later than normal, but only got 40 acres in the ground before another rainstorm came through. I have a bit of an advantage with two different distinct soil types. I farm mostly heavy clay soils, but about…

2019 is turning out to be quite a spring. That is for inaction on my farm. Constant rains including another tonight have meant that hardly anything is done with regard to spring planting in southwestern Ontario. For myself, I have not turned a wheel, even though I’ve been getting ready to plant for the past…

Over my career, I’ve seen more than a few things happen, which I never expected. So when the Beyond Meat’s stock market value topped $3 billion today on the stock market, it was just another day. Never could I have ever imagined a day a few years ago when “fake meat” would be all the…

In this part of the world we had 2 inches of rain last weekend, which has essentially put a bit of a damper on spring planting. Aside from a few sugar beets in the ground corn planting is really hasn’t got out of the gate. That seems to be the case across the Eastern corn…