Banner year for corn production: farmer

Ottawa-area farmers say it's been a record -breaking year for corn production, as an early start to the season combined with warm weather has meant bigger, better corn, and much more of it.

The only problem is, farmers and grain elevators are running out of space to store the corn, and processors can't keep up with the supply.   "Things are going great, it's been a great year so far," said Don Kenny who's been farming for half a century in the rural east-end-Ottawa community of Stittsville.

He said this year is shaping up to be the perfect storm for corn producers.   "We've got an excellent crop, maybe as good a crop of corn as we've grown in my history of growing corn, and we're lucky that the prices keep going up every day," said Kenny, who is chair of the Grain Farmers of Ontario.

Kenny ships his corn to GreenField Ethanol Inc. in Johnstown right next to the Port of Prescott in eastern Ontario, the largest ethanol plant in Canada.

But, as large as it is, the plant has all the corn it can handle for now. The huge grain elevator in Prescott is also full, as are most farmers' silos.

Robert Dalley, who runs the grain elevators at the Port of Prescott, expects 20 per cent more grain will pass through his elevator this year.

But, he said, he's had to stop accepting corn until some of this year's also abundant soybean harvest gets shipped out.

Don Kenny says the hold-up is a temporary setback.

"Until this bottleneck clears some of the corn will have to stay in the field a little bit longer," he said.

He said the corn crop this year is very robust, so it will easily survive a longer stay in the fields.