Grain Farmers of Ontario Congratulates Trevor Jones, Minister of Agriculture

Mar 19, 2025

Guelph, ON – 2025 – Grain Farmers of Ontario, the province’s largest commodity organization, representing Ontario’s 28,000 barley, corn, oat, soybean, and wheat farmers, congratulates the Honourable Trevor Jones, MPP for Chatham-Kent-Leamington, on his recent appointment as Ontario minister of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness and the Honourable Lisa Thompson on her reappointment as minister of Rural Affairs.

“The grain and oilseed industry needs strong leadership from the provincial government as we face uncertainty in trade due to tariff threats from the U.S. and China,” says Jeff Harrison, chair of Grain Farmers of Ontario “We have previously worked with Trevor Jones when he served as parliamentary assistant to the minister of agriculture, and we look forward to working with him on Grain Farmers of Ontario priorities that benefit farmer-members.”

“We also thank the previous minister, the Honourable Rob Flack, for his support and hard work on behalf of Ontario’s grain farmers,” Harrison continues. “In particular, Minister Flack supported Grain Farmers of Ontario in securing $100 million of additional Risk Management Program funding, setting up farmer-members for success when commodity prices dip below the price of production. This was a file Grain Farmers of Ontario has worked on for a long time, and his support was integral in getting it over the finish line.”

Grain Farmers of Ontario has a number of priorities for the recently re-elected Ford government, including:

Ongoing support for Ontario’s Risk Management Program.
Keeping Ontario grain farmers competitive by protecting markets & imports of farm inputs.
Accelerating the use of grain-based renewable fuels.
Providing relief on carbon tax for grain drying.
Reducing red tape and investing in grain and oilseed processing.
Reducing red tape and costs of trucking farm products.
Reviewing the reach of conservation authorities.
Prohibiting municipalities from charging stormwater fees on agricultural properties.
Increasing investment in research and innovation.

Source : GFO

Video: Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

Northeast Wisconsin is a small corner of the world, but our weather is still affected by what happens across the globe.

That includes in the equatorial Pacific, where changes between El Niño and La Niña play a role in the weather here -- and boy, have there been some abrupt changes as of late.

El Niño and La Niña are the two phases of what is collectively known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO for short. These are the swings back and forth from unusually warm to unusually cold sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator.

Since this past September, we have been in a weak La Niña, which means water temperatures near the Eastern Pacific equator have been cooler than usual. That's where we're at right now.

Even last fall, the long-term outlook suggested a return to neutral conditions by spring and potentially El Niño conditions by summer.

But there are some signs this may be happening faster than usual, which could accelerate the onset of El Niño.

Over the last few weeks, unusually strong bursts of westerly winds farther west in the Pacific -- where sea surface temperatures are warmer than average -- have been observed. There is a chance that this could accelerate the warming of those eastern Pacific waters and potentially push us into El Niño sooner than usual.

If we do enter El Nino by spring -- which we'll define as the period of March, April and May -- there are some long-term correlations with our weather here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Looking at a map of anomalously warm weather, most of the upper Great Lakes doesn't show a strong correlation, but in general, the northern tiers of the United States do tend to lean to that direction.

The stronger correlation is with precipitation. El Niño conditions in spring have historically come with a higher risk of very dry weather over that time frame, so this will definitely be a transition we'll have to watch closely as we move out of winter.