Grape King and Queen of the Furrow Unite for IPM in Niagara

Aug 12, 2025
By Denise Faguy
Assistant Editor, North American Content, Farms.com

Ontario’s agricultural traditions meet in celebration at Niagara’s wine country

Two iconic agricultural traditions in Ontario came together in a special event in Niagara’s wine country. Jeff Duc, the Grape King, welcomed Taylor Legge, the Ontario Queen of the Furrow, for a meaningful meeting that highlights the shared values of excellence, leadership, and dedication to farming in the province.

“The Grape King and Ontario Queen of the Furrow may come from different parts of Ontario’s agricultural landscape, but they share a passion for the land, excellence in their craft, and a dedication to the future of farming,” said Debbie Zimmerman, Chief Executive Officer, Grape Growers of Ontario.

The Grape King title has been awarded since 1956 to Ontario’s top grape grower, recognizing outstanding vineyard management and commitment to the grape and wine industry.

Each year, a new Grape King is selected through a rigorous evaluation process by industry experts, including representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness and the University of Guelph. As an ambassador for grape growers, the Grape King promotes innovation and advocacy in the sector.

Equally important is the Ontario Queen of the Furrow, a title that began in 1960 as part of the International Plowing Match & Rural Expo (IPM). This prestigious competition recognizes young women who demonstrate agricultural knowledge, leadership skills, and community involvement. Contestants participate in plowing competitions, public speaking, and interviews.

The Queen represents the Ontario Plowmen’s Association (OPA) and the upcoming IPM throughout the year.

The visit of the Ontario Queen of the Furrow to Niagara underscores the strong connection between Ontario’s diverse agricultural communities. Both Duc and Legge are passionate about farming and are dedicated to advancing the future of agriculture. Their meeting marks the spirit of progress, stewardship, and leadership across the farming landscape.

The IPM will take place from September 16 to 20 in Grassie, West Lincoln, Niagara Region, marking its return after almost a century. For more details and to purchase tickets, visit www.plowingmatch.org/ipm2025.

Photo Credit: Corinne Bosch

Video: The 15-Year Bet Behind Every New Variety!

Canada is trying to decide how much agricultural research capacity it can afford to lose. Brian Rossnagel believes the better question is whether the country can afford to rebuild it.

The longtime barley and oat breeder makes the case with a simple fact about his profession: the consequences of today’s decisions may not become visible for 10 or 15 years.

“Pick the right parents. That’s the biggest thing,” Rossnagel says. “If you pick the wrong parents, you’re not going to get anywhere—and you don’t know that until 10 years, 15 years later.”

That warning carries particular weight as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada moves to reduce spending and streamline parts of its science operations. The department’s 2026–27 plan anticipates the loss of approximately 665 positions by 2028–29 and says some research will be reduced where capacity exists in academia or industry. AAFC says the changes will make its science operations more cost-effective over the long term.

For Canada’s seed industry, Rossnagel’s career illustrates what is at stake.

This fall, the retired University of Saskatchewan breeder will be inducted into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame. During his 35-year career at the Crop Development Centre, he helped develop more than 100 barley and oat varieties, including CDC Austenson—one of Western Canada’s most widely grown feed barleys. His induction recognizes not only those varieties, but the collaboration and research system that made them possible.

Rossnagel is quick to emphasize that none of it was the work of one person.

“The first thing I thought about was all the other people who contributed to whatever success I and my program had over the years,” he says. “We know that it’s not an individual who does this. It’s a group—a team.”

That team extends well beyond the breeder whose name appears beside a variety. It includes technicians, pathologists, quality specialists, statisticians, regional testing sites, seed growers and industry partners. It also includes the breeders who came before and those who will carry the germplasm forward.

CDC Fraser barley, for example, moved through three breeding careers. Its parents came from Brian Harvey’s program. Rossnagel advanced the material after Harvey retired, and Aaron Beattie later guided it through registration and release.

That kind of handoff is normal in plant breeding. The person who makes the original cross may never see the resulting variety reach farmers.

It also explains why lost research capacity cannot simply be switched back on when budgets improve.

“If you shut it off, it’s very, very difficult—and particularly costly—to start it up again,” Rossnagel says. “If you have to start from scratch, it’s going to be at least 10 years before anybody notices whether you’re getting anything done or not.”

The concern is not simply how many experimental lines Canada can process. Modern equipment, statistical tools and genetic technologies allow today’s breeding programs to evaluate tens of thousands of lines—far more than Rossnagel could handle when he entered the field in the early 1970s.

But efficiency and automation do not generate every idea.

“If you pare back down, and instead of having six or seven individual scientists concentrating on wheat breeding, you go down and say three people could handle all this, well, that’s half the ideas gone,” he says. “Particularly if you happen to lose the three people who had the really neat and innovative ideas, boy, that’s a problem.”

It is a timely distinction for Canadian agriculture. Consolidating programs may preserve the volume of material moving through a system, at least initially. It may not preserve the diversity of thinking, regional knowledge or willingness to pursue unconventional crosses.

That regional knowledge matters because Canadian agriculture is not one uniform production environment. A variety suited to southern Alberta may face different disease, moisture and maturity pressures than one grown in Manitoba, Ontario or Atlantic Canada.

“Agriculture is applied biology,” Rossnagel says. “Biology, all around the Earth, moves from the poles to the equator. It does not move from Newfoundland to B.C. like politics do.”