Eastern winners awarded in Grain Farmers of Ontario’s inaugural spring wheat challenge
Elgin, ON (January 19, 2011) – Exceptional wheat growers were recognized at a GFO District meeting today in Elgin, Ontario. The top three winners from Eastern Ontario were awarded prizes this afternoon for their big win in GFO’s first ever Spring Wheat Challenge.
“This new challenge was a natural direction for GFO as we’ve had such great success with the Soybean Yield Challenge in past years,” says Jaye Atkins, Vice President of Strategic Development at GFO. “The Spring Wheat Challenge was planned to recognize excellent growers of wheat and to stimulate discussion about this crop.”
The challenge attracted 29 registrants this year. “We’re happy with this participation given that this was the first year of the competition,” says Crosby Devitt, Manager of Research and Market Development at GFO.
GFO is even happier with the yields. Final entries had to be of milling quality to compete and of those, the average yield was 71.9 bushels per acre. “Although spring wheat is historically challenging to grow, it is clear that success is attainable as demonstrated by these growers,” says Devitt.
The challenge was split into two geographic zones to best reflect the entrants, each of which will receive a cash prize of $1,500 for first place. Second place winners will take home $750 and third place winners will be awarded $500.
The challenge was made possible by a generous and exclusive sponsorship from Bayer CropScience.
The 2010 GFO Spring Wheat Challenge Eastern Winners are:
1st Place John and Beth Nanne, Pakenham, Sable, 74.52 bu/ac
2nd Place Jockbrae Farms Ltd, Carlton Place, AC Brio, 71.12 bu/ac
3rd Place Appaulo Farms Ltd., Carp, 59.42 bu/ac
The western Ontario winners will be announced at the GFO meeting in Orangeville on January 26, 2011. Check out the February issue of the Ontario Grain Farmer magazine for information about the winners’ management practices.
Grain Farmers of Ontario
Grain Farmers of Ontario is the province’s largest commodity organization, representing Ontario’s 28,000 corn, soybean and wheat farmers. The crops they grow cover 6 million acres of farm land across the province, generate over $2.5 billion in farm gate receipts, result in over $9 billion in economic output and are responsible for over 40,000 jobs in the province.
