Philip Shaw

This arid summer continues. I don’t know what we have to do in southwestern Ontario to get a good soaking rain especially with wheat harvest in the rear-view mirror. Maybe it’s time for my neighbors to pull out the tomato harvesters. That’s always a good way to have the fields inundated with rain. Needless to…

It is post wheat harvest for me. This means it’s the time of year where usually I can relax a little bit more with spring crops in the rear-view mirror, but at the same time with thoughts of 2023 just around the corner. When you see your wheat stubble it begs the question what you…

It has been another dry week here in southwestern Ontario as farmers started their wheat harvest. I had one farmer tell me once that he always enjoyed wheat harvest because it’s the only harvest that he could do in his shirtsleeves. I have always remembered that axiom through the years and hopefully I’ll be able…

It is that time of year again in southwestern Ontario as combines start to roll through soft red winter wheat fields.  Hopefully by the time that you have read this, I’ll have mine off.  It was a tough year for getting wheat planted last year and I hope this year I can get many more…

I started fixing things mid June. The worst part of replanting soybeans is considering it in the days after damaging rain. Once you actually make the decision to replant the crop and press the auto steer button things become much easier. It can be an anguishing decision to get to that point but generally speaking…

The proverbial question came this morning. I ventured to a political event put on by my local MPP. I wanted to thank him for some of the constituency work that he had done on my behalf. It didn’t take long but after a while somebody came up and asked me when they should sell their…

I started planting corn this week and finished today.  In southwestern Ontario we have not had rain in quite some time and the ground conditions we’re very favorable for planting this week especially on heavier ground. I plant corn into a stale seed bed, having worked it the year before. It’s not for everybody but…

      It has been a slow start to planting here in southwestern Ontario. The last few nights have been below freezing. The ground was frozen this morning and that doesn’t make it very palatable for putting seed in the ground.  It is the same way in large parts of the United States, but history tells…

It has been a slow start here in southwestern Ontario to planting season.  The same could be said for large parts of the United States, which until now have been inundated with cooler and wetter weather.  Your loyal scribe is ready to go, but of course I’m waiting along with everybody else. I’ve seen about…

I am ready to plant. This past week I continued preparation for the spring planting season.  With new crop corn currently trading for $8.50 a bushel and soybeans at $18.50 you would think it would be the stuff that farmers dream are made of. Sure, these prices are good but increasingly I’m thinking that the…