Some corn and soy farmers in our area are facing a thirty percent hit in their pocketbook this harvest. The drought has affected the size of the crop. But for vegetable farmers, a bumper crop of tomatoes that are soaking up the sun. The threat of rain is in the air, but  it's too little, too late for many of the cobs of corn in Tom Black’s fields. “These should be eight inches higher,” he says of his stalks of corn. Black grows field corn and soy on his farm in southwest Ottawa. He pulls off one healthy looking cob, “This is what all the crops should look like this year,” he says, as he puts another cob beside it for comparison.  It is stunted, a third the size and many of the kernels are puckered and withered. Much of his crop is a stunted by the unusually dry, hot summer this year. “We are going to be down, at least in my fields, 25 to 30%,” he says. He is not alone. “I know some people are already writing (their corn) off for insurance and cutting it down for feed, round baling it and chopping it.” The situation is not much better with his soy beans. “There should be nice round beans in there, but they're flat,” Black says, holding up a soy bean. It is a double whammy for farmers; the yield is low and so, too are prices, “2015 was the best year in history I think,” says Black, “and we get spoiled and hope to have that every year.” Vegetable farmer Gerry Rochon has certainly been dealt a better hand this year.  Most vegetables love the heat as long as they are watered. “It’s better than average,” says Rochon, as he scoops up a handful of large, ripe tomatoes, “We've had some crops do very well, other crops better than average so we're happy this year.” What does all this mean for  consumers?  Well, bargains perhaps on some bumper crops like tomatoes.  But prices on soy and corn are generally set by what is happening in the United States, in particular the Corn Belt.  And many farmers in those areas are having an extremely profitable year, keeping prices this side of the border down. For Tom Black, it will be a disappointing year; all part of the gamble of being a farmer, he says. “It’s like las Vegas,” he says, “you pay your money and take your chances.” Source - http://ottawa.ctvnews.ca