Philip Shaw

The scenes from British Columbia are heartbreaking. If you don’t know starting last Sunday British Columbia saw record rainfall that lasted for 48 hours and caused massive flooding and landslides across the southern part of the province. This had the effect of cutting off much of the lower mainland from the rest of the province…

This week I joined the corn harvesting party. There was finally some good weather that helped put my soybeans behind me. It’s been a frustratingly weird season here in southwestern Ontario, I’d say wetter than normal which always causes problems. However, I would be remiss to mention the preponderance of double crop soybeans that are…

It seems like an Ag now, but last year I visited the small country of the Maldives which lies in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Sri Lanka. It’s hard to imagine visiting such a place, but that’s exactly what some of us did in the pre COVID world. I got there inadvertently as…

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to speak with a political candidate during our Canadian federal election. It was one of those moments when you know you could be asked just about anything. Typically, non-farm people who run as candidates want to meet with farm people to learn the issues. At a certain point…

There is nothing quite like a dreary October. It is at this time of year that you don’t want to find yourself with idle time. Unfortunately, I’ve had quite a bit of it lately as wet weather has staggered my soybean harvest which started on September 20th and continues when Mother Nature smiles. Unfortunately, that…

This week was a bit of a rerun of last week, with cloudy wet weather delaying soybean harvest. It’s still mid-October, so its ok, but the weather gods are not cooperating this year. Remnants of Hurricane Pam, which hit the southwestern coasts of Mexico off the Pacific is supposed to hit Friday and Saturday in…

I’ve been solidly into soybean harvest since September 20th. On September 30th, I finished one farm severely affected by heavy water, 5 inches of rain in about two hours in late June. Since then, that soybean crop had wet feet and my expectations were in line with what I got. I’m putting it behind me…

The Ontario crop continues to move on. This past week your loyal scribe got away to Tobermory Ontario for a couple days. For my American readers, Tobermory is a small town on the northern end of the Bruce Peninsula in southern Ontario. It’s not northern Ontario, but its about as close as you come in…

December corn futures were down 50 cents this week after three straight days of losses. I wouldn’t call it a slap in the face, but we certainly have been accustomed to up or sideways. With Hurricane Ida exacting its toll on Gulf export facilities, all bids and offers were pulled sending bids and vessels elsewhere….

It is getting to be that time of year. Usually in late August you feel a little chill at night, but not so this year. In southwestern Ontario, we’ve experienced consistent hot temperatures and humidex values over 40 degrees C. There have also been a few cracks of thunder and in my case, ample rainfall….