No problems have surfaced yet from insects or diseases. The weeds are still below ground level. And with rare exception in Ontario there are no problems with drought at planting time. The realities set in as the growing season progresses. The weed escapes persist despite rescue herbicide applications and late soil cultivation.
Diseases move in, and insects do their thing.
The summer-long habit of watching western skies for rain clouds begins, and pickup truck radios are turned to stations with the most frequent weather forecasts. Yield expectations drop. Sometime around late June or early July, gyrations in corn and soybean futures prices usually intensify - plunging if crop conditions look good in the U.S. midwest, climbing if there are signs of developing drought. But for a few weeks at seeding time, all of these problems lie in the future. The emphasis is on putting seed into the ground and associated seeding time operations - just as it has been with farmers for thousands of years.