About Ontario Grain Farmer

Ontario Grain Farmer

Overview

Ontario Grain Farmer is the magazine of Grain Farmers of Ontario, the province's largest commodity organization, published from the organization's head office in Guelph. It describes itself, on its own About page, as striving to be the number one source of information for Ontario's grain farmers, with a balanced mix of production, marketing, technology, research and general interest articles in an easy-to-read format. Above all, it is a membership magazine: Grain Farmers of Ontario calls it its flagship publication, made by farmers, for farmers, and the print edition is mailed to the province's barley, corn, oat, soybean and wheat farmers.

The magazine's readers are the grower-members of Grain Farmers of Ontario, and its editorial brief follows their business year: agronomy and soil health through the growing season, harvesting and storage in the fall, and marketing, succession and farm-business planning through the winter. Every article is also posted to the magazine's website, ontariograinfarmer.ca, which republishes the print content in a monthly cycle; the October 2026 content was live on the site at the time of this profile.

Ontario Grain Farmer is produced in-house by the organization's communications department rather than by a commercial publisher, and it operates alongside Grain Farmers of Ontario's other channels — the GrainTALK electronic newsletter, the gfo.ca website, social media and the Good in Every Grain public-outreach campaign.

History

The magazine is a product of the 2010 reorganization of Ontario's grain sector. Grain Farmers of Ontario was formed that year by the merger of three founding organizations — the Ontario Wheat Producers' Marketing Board, the Ontario Corn Producers' Association and the Ontario Soybean Growers — and 2025 marked the merged organization's 15th year. Of the three founders, only the corn producers' association had a long-established magazine distributed to its membership: the Ontario Corn Producer.

In a retrospective published by the magazine for the organization's 10th anniversary in 2020, production coordinator Kim Ratz described how the new title took shape. Focus groups held going into the merger confirmed that members wanted a monthly publication to continue; the existing corn magazine was given a complete makeover, with features carried over, adapted or dropped based on farmer-member feedback; a new design was developed; and the name itself was narrowed down from options and put to a vote. The result, Ontario Grain Farmer, became the flagship publication of the merged organization and its main method of communication with all farmer-members.

The magazine's second major redesign came fifteen years in. Grain Farmers of Ontario's 2026 annual report records that Ontario Grain Farmer was redesigned in 2025 with the goal of providing readers with a more visual experience, and that farmer-members surveyed at the organization's March Classic conference that year responded positively — more than half of those who completed the survey called the redesign "very appealing" and "much better" than the previous design. Chief executive Crosby Devitt's December 2025 column in the magazine, reflecting on the organization's milestone 15th year, is one of a series of anniversary features the magazine ran through 2025 looking back at its first decade and a half.

Content and Coverage

The editorial mix set out on the magazine's About page — production, marketing, technology, research and general interest — is visible in its current issues. Production coverage is agronomic and practical: the October 2026 edition carried a feature on whether soils are ready for big rains, drawing on Ontario's crop specialists to explain how rainfall infiltration protects topsoil. Marketing and business coverage in the same cycle ranged from a question-and-answer feature on capital gains and succession planning for farmers selling land and assets, to an account of where Ontario grains go — the feed, food-processing and export markets that take the province's corn, soybeans, wheat, barley and oats.

Policy and industry affairs form the third strand. The magazine reports the organization's advocacy and its role in the wider sector, including Grain Farmers of Ontario's co-hosting, with the Canadian Canola Growers Association, of the 2026 International Oilseed Producers Dialogue and its call for science-based regulation and open trade. Regular elements include the chief executive's column, "From the CEO's desk," organizational news such as the Grain Farmers of Ontario Legacy Scholarship, and farmer voices — the annual report quotes a March Classic attendee's verdict that the magazine is "an insightful journal of what's going on in the province of Ontario" that helps with day-to-day decisions.

The magazine is also a channel for the organization's research and knowledge-transfer work: it carries results and explainers arising from the research Grain Farmers of Ontario funds and coordinates, written for the farmers who pay the licence fees that support the organization.

Audience and Reach

The audience is defined by the membership. Grain Farmers of Ontario's standard description of itself — used in its own releases — states that it represents Ontario's 28,000 barley, corn, oat, soybean and wheat farmers, whose crops cover over six million acres of farmland, generate over $4.1 billion in production value, result in over $27 billion in economic output and are responsible for over 90,000 jobs in the province; those are the organization's own published figures, presented here as such and not as independent measurements.

The magazine's distribution is built into that membership. Its About page explains that the mailing list is maintained from licence-fee collection data — the job, held by the organization's fee collection and reporting specialist, of ensuring that each barley, corn, oat, soybean and wheat farmer in Ontario receives the magazine. Print distribution is therefore effectively a census of the province's commercial grain growers rather than a newsstand or paid-subscription circulation, and no separate audited circulation figure is published for the title in the sources consulted.

Digital Presence

Ontario Grain Farmer's website, ontariograinfarmer.ca, mirrors the print magazine's monthly cycle, posting each edition's features, columns and news online; articles from the October 2026 edition — on capital gains, grain markets, soil readiness and the oilseed producers' dialogue — were the current content on the site when this profile was prepared, confirming the title's present operation. The site also carries the magazine's About and team pages and subscription information.

Around the magazine, Grain Farmers of Ontario operates the GrainTALK electronic newsletter, its main gfo.ca site and social-media channels, and runs the Good in Every Grain campaign, a public-outreach programme telling the story of Ontario's grain farmers to consumers. The organization's 2026 annual report describes a communications programme spanning member updates, the magazine, the e-newsletter, websites, social media, media relations and event communications, including the annual March Classic conference at which the magazine's 2025 redesign was surveyed with readers.

Ownership and Organisation

Ontario Grain Farmer is owned and published by Grain Farmers of Ontario, a non-profit commodity organization headquartered at 679 Southgate Drive in Guelph, Ontario. The organization is governed by farmer leadership and led by chief executive officer Crosby Devitt, whose column appears in the magazine. The magazine sits inside the communications department: Susan Blundell is director of communications, leading the organization's communications strategy, member communications, public engagement, media relations, brand and digital work.

The magazine's named team, per its own About page, is led by managing editor Kristy Nudds. Nicole Koopstra, who joined the organization in May 2024, is its creative specialist, responsible for the design of the magazine's pages among other communications products. Advertising sales are handled in-house by Joanne Tichborne, who also coordinates sponsors and exhibitors for the March Classic and brings more than twenty years of print and digital advertising sales experience, begun at the Guelph Mercury in 1999. The mailing list is maintained by fee collection and reporting specialist Phaedra McIntosh; mailing is handled by T Stone Mailing and print coordination by Precision Print Management, which works with sheet-fed and digital printers to produce the magazine.

Contact and Availability

Ontario Grain Farmer is published by Grain Farmers of Ontario, 679 Southgate Drive, Guelph, ON N1G 4S2; the organization's general telephone numbers, published in its 2026 annual report, are 519-767-6537 and 1-800-265-0550, and general enquiries go to info@gfo.ca. The magazine's website is ontariograinfarmer.ca. Its managing editor, Kristy Nudds, is listed on the magazine's About page at knudds@gfo.ca and 519 837-9144; advertising enquiries go to Joanne Tichborne at jtichborne@gfo.ca or 226 332-3637, and subscription and mailing-list changes to Phaedra McIntosh at pmcintosh@gfo.ca or 519 767-4130 — all contact details published by the organization itself and carried in the body of this profile only; the public business email field for this listing is intentionally left blank. Farmer-members receive the print magazine by mail as part of their membership in Grain Farmers of Ontario.