GLG Crop Assessment tour now bigger than ever!

The Great Lakes Grain gang is making headlines and gaining more attention each year from ag media and farmers with respect to the good work they are doing with their annual Crop Assessment Tours. The tours have been conducted in and around south western and central Ontario for the past four years sending large groups of FS crop specialists and grain staff on crop scouting blitzes, capturing new field data to analyse and share with producers.

Fran Downey of AGRIS Co-operative
begins soybean yield checks just
outside Muirkirk, ON.

The GLG Crop Assessment tour has evolved over the past four years and this year FS crop specialists from all over Ontario   participated from Lucknow Co-op, Huron Bay Co-op, North WellingtonCo-op, Sunderland Co-op, Wanstead Farmers Co-op, FS PARTNERS and AGRISCo-operative.

More than 1000 yield assessments were compiled and analyzed in thirteen zones. A total of 577 corn and 519 soybean sites were observed this year throughout the Great Lakes Grain trading area amounting to approximately 35,000 acres of corn and 31,000 of soybeans.

Dale Cowan, senior sales agronomist with Southern Co-operative Services tells Ontario Farmer News that every year he expects to talk about variability. “However the biggest surprise this year was the amount of variability...not only from field to field, but even within fields.”  

Don Kabbes, Great Lakes Grain market development manager was on hand at Canada’sOutdoor Farm Show to present the full tour results. You can view the details of the tour report at http://www.greatlakesgrain.com/index.cfm?show=10&mid=293 or by either visiting Great Lakes Grain, AGRIS or FS PARTNERS sites.

(L-R) Don Kabbes, Great Lakes Grain market development manager, Mark Kerry, DEKALB eastern Canada sales manager and Dale Cowan, Southern Co-operative Services senior agronomist at Canada's Outdoor Farm Show presenting
2013 Crop Assessment Tour results.