: Ontario Crops Show Strong Start Despite Weather Challenges

Jun 05, 2026
By Farms.com

Corn and soybean planting near completion while wheat faces rising disease pressure.

Acorrding to the OMAFA fieldcropnews.com, crop conditions across Ontario indicate a generally positive start to the growing season, although dry weather and cool soil temperatures have created uneven growth and management challenges.

Corn planting is nearly complete across most regions, with estimates ranging from about 95 percent to almost fully planted. Emergence has been mostly uniform, and plant stands are generally strong.

However, some localized replanting has been required, especially in fields affected by cool soil conditions and early-season stress. Growth stages range from early leaf stages to around the V5 stage in advanced fields.

Weed pressure is increasing in areas where residual herbicides were not applied. Annual ryegrass and volunteer corn are key concerns, while dry soil conditions have slowed herbicide activation.

Soybean planting is also close to completion, with most regions reporting around 95 percent or more planted, although heavier clay soils have experienced some delays.

Emergence has been slower than usual due to cool temperatures, and uneven stands have been reported in some fields. Early planted fields are currently being assessed for replant decisions, while later planted crops are still emerging. Slug activity has caused minor damage in some areas.

Weed pressure, especially from Canada fleabane, remains a major concern in identity-preserved soybean systems. Multiple herbicide applications are often required to manage these challenges effectively.

Winter wheat is progressing into the heading stage, with reasonable growth across the province. However, disease pressure is increasing, particularly from stripe rust, which has been confirmed across several regions in southwestern Ontario. Growers are advised to closely monitor fields and apply fungicides where necessary.

Powdery mildew and viruses have also been reported in some areas. Insect activity varies, with cereal aphids and cereal leaf beetles present in some fields, though control is only required if populations reach specific thresholds.

For more information about annual ryegrass, volunteer corn, slug, stripe rust and cereal leaf beetle, please visit the Farms.com Field Guide Pest pages.

Photo Credit: Pexels - Tom Van Dyck

Video: From Students to Solutions | On The Brink: Season 2, Episode 14

Ask Canada’s most decorated soybean breeder his favourite part of the job and he doesn’t name a single variety. He names the students.

Istvan Rajcan is a professor of soybean breeding and genetics in the Department of Plant Agriculture at the University of Guelph, where he has run the soybean breeding program for 28 and a half years. In that time he has developed 87 soybean cultivars, published 140 refereed papers and trained 51 graduate students. In 2025 he received the Public Sector Impact Award from the National Association for Plant Breeding.

He is also worried. In this episode he says Canada is at a crossroads, pointing to recent government cuts to plant breeding programs and to the facilities that support them. His prescription is structural. "Plant breeding funding formula has to be a long-term one," he says.

The formula he is defending is the public-private matching arrangement his program runs on. Private seed companies fund the work, provincial or federal money matches it, and the combined pool stretches each dollar further than either source could alone. At the National Association for Plant Breeding annual meeting in June, he says American public breeders were often surprised at how well that collaboration works in Canada.

He also describes how the people entering plant breeding have changed. His early graduate students came mostly from farms. More recently they include, in his words, "city kids who just became excited about genetics."

Topics covered:

Why public-private plant breeding funding in Canada needs a long-term

commitment rather than a larger one

How matching private seed company investment with provincial and federal

dollars multiplies research capacity

How the graduate student pipeline into plant breeding has shifted from

farm kids to city kids