Philip Shaw

Today we had a full day of rain in southwestern Ontario which is unusual for the fall of 2024. While we dodged raindrops most of the summer, nobody really worries about a drought which gave us beautiful harvest weather. Today reminded me more of Novembers of the past, gray and gloomy. Much of the Ontario…

It has been another beautiful week of weather here in southwestern Ontario.  This has made it so enjoyable for farmers to put an end on their harvest or to get even closer to the finish line.  I don’t think there is ever much of a challenge when it comes to a dry fall, but it…

This past week we had a continuing pattern of fair and warm weather across the greater North American corn belt and in my neighborhood this helped me finish my corn harvest.  Like everything else this year my corn yields were down from last year as a waterlogged spring came back to haunt me. However, I…

Soybean harvest ended for me last week and corn harvest started up. It has been a beautiful stretch of weather across the greater American corn belt and of course this has extended into southwestern Ontario. I was asked today whether this is the best harvest weather I’ve ever seen, and I responded by saying it…

It seems like forever now but your loyal scribe did help lead the biggest farm protest in Canadian history back on April the 6th, 2006.  At the time farmers were protesting the lack of a Canadian agricultural safety net to stabilize our revenues.  18 years later we have still not come close to what we…

It is that time of year again.  Early October is the time in Ontario where soybean harvest is in full swing.  Soybeans can sneak up on you. They start turning sometimes in late August or early September and then with good weather there usually is an acceleration to the time when they are ready. However,…

It is being quite a week harvesting soybeans. Wide open weather across Ontario has led to a substantial percentage of the Ontario crop in the bin.  Your loyal scribe has been doing his part, driving that big green monster through the field. If I am lucky, I will be done soybeans next week.  Of course,…

At a certain point getting ready for harvest has an endpoint and that end point is when you finally start moving into a freshly ripened field of soybeans. So far that has not happened to me, but I have spent each day spending a few minutes going over the combine trying to anticipate anything that…

This past week has been a wonderful bit of weather across much of Ontario. We were inundated with bright sunshine and warm temperatures something that you couldn’t order up any better for maturing corn and soybeans.  Sometimes at this time of year when you get warm weather you can almost see the soybeans accelerating in…

I’ve spent most of the last week land leveling some of my wheat ground getting ready for crops in 2025. I plant corn and soybeans into a stale seed bed and land leveling is a very necessary part of that. Interestingly enough, this year has been terrible for getting it dry enough for primary tillage…