Grain Farmers of Ontario Congratulates Lisa Thompson on Reinstatement as Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs

Jun 24, 2022

Grain Farmers of Ontario, the province’s largest commodity organization, representing Ontario’s 28,000 barley, corn, oat, soybean and wheat farmers, offers congratulations to Lisa Thompson, Member of Provincial Parliament for Huron-Bruce, on her well-deserved re-appointment as the provincial Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

Minister Thompson has continuously championed and advocated for Ontario farmers and the agricultural industry during her entire provincial government tenure.

“We are excited to continue the momentum of our positive and established relationship with Minister Thompson, advocating for our farmer-members and the growth of our $18 billion industry,” said Brendan Byrne, chair, Grain Farmers of Ontario. “Minister Thompson carries a great passion for the agriculture sector and understands what rural communities and farmers need to thrive and the critical contributions our farmer-members make to food security and provincial economic growth.”

“We look forward to working with Minister Thompson to resolve the challenges farmers are facing with fertilizer supply tariffs, an improved Ontario Risk Management program as well as an properly funded APF agreement that includes a Business Risk Management program that is focused on risk management that grain farmers can rely on,” said Crosby Devitt, CEO, of Grain Farmers of Ontario. “Ontario agriculture needs passionate advocates within the government who understand farmers and farming businesses.”

Grain Farmers of Ontario also congratulates Premier Doug Ford and all elected officials from all parties. We look forward to continuing our work with them on the Ontario agriculture industry’s priorities.

Source : GFO.ca

Video: Seeing the Whole Season: How Continuous Crop Modeling Is Changing Breeding

Plant breeding has long been shaped by snapshots. A walk through a plot. A single set of notes. A yield check at the end of the season. But crops do not grow in moments. They change every day.

In this conversation, Gary Nijak of AerialPLOT explains how continuous crop modeling is changing the way breeders see, measure, and select plants by capturing growth, stress, and recovery across the entire season, not just at isolated points in time.

Nijak breaks down why point-in-time observations can miss critical performance signals, how repeated, season-long data collection removes the human bottleneck in breeding, and what becomes possible when every plot is treated as a living data set. He also explores how continuous modeling allows breeding programs to move beyond vague descriptors and toward measurable, repeatable insights that connect directly to on-farm outcomes.

This conversation explores:

• What continuous crop modeling is and how it works

• Why traditional field observations fall short over a full growing season

• How scale and repeated measurement change breeding decisions

• What “digital twins” of plots mean for selection and performance

• Why data, not hardware, is driving the next shift in breeding innovation As data-driven breeding moves from research into real-world programs, this discussion offers a clear look at how seeing the whole season is reshaping value for breeders, seed companies, and farmers, and why this may be only the beginning.