Port of Johnstown Unveils New Grain Dryer

Oct 22, 2024

Just in time for the 2024 Ontario corn harvest, the Port of Johnstown has upgraded its grain handling capabilities.

Located on the St. Lawrence Seaway system between Toronto and Montreal, the eastern Ontario port last week announced the completion of a $6-million state of the art propane grain dryer.

"This new dryer will more than double our drying capacity, allowing us to handle soybean and corn simultaneously," Edwardsburgh Cardinal Mayor Tory Deschamps, who serves on the Port Management Committee, said in a release. "This expansion addresses a significant constraint, as soybean harvest often overlaps with corn harvest, challenging our ability to process both crops efficiently."

The project received $2 million from the federal government’s Agriculture Clean Technology (ACT) Program, which supports Canadian agricultural operations in implementing cleaner technologies. The remainder of the cost was covered by port reserves. The new grain dryer, built with advanced heat retention technology, is expected to reduce carbon emissions by 30-45%.

The Port of Johnstown is a major agricultural and industrial port in Eastern Ontario, serving the needs of regional farmers, manufacturers, and businesses. The Port handles a variety of commodities, including grain, salt, and petroleum products.

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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.