Farming Smarter plans to ask producers for their input into agricultural research during a series of meetings later this month and early December.
The meetings, called Agronomy Battles, will allow producers, scientists and agronomists to meet face to face to work through the challenges faced by farmers in specific regions of southern Alberta:
• Cover crops for soil conservation and erosion, Nov. 19 in Bow Island.
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• Strip tillage, Nov. 26 in Taber.
• Herbicide resistance: kochia and wild oats (Dec. 3 in Enchant).
Why It Matters: Non-profit southern Alberta organization hopes to get grassroots feedback from Agronomy Battles series to guide research to aid Canadian farmers
The introductory cover crops session will explore how farmers and researchers have navigated obstacles such as equipment and establishment to reap the benefits of cover crops. The round table discussion will highlight the benefits of cover crops and as farmers to talk about what has slowed or stopped their adoption.
“Rather than having everybody come to us, we did want to go out to them, mainly because these problems are so localized. Every field is different. How you’re going to approach a problem is different farmer to farmer and field to field,” said Sean Kjos, communications co-ordinator with Farming Smarter, a non-profit research institute.
“The location for each is picked based on the work we’ve done. We’ve been doing a lot of herbicide stuff out by Enchant. A bunch of our strip tillage locations are around Taber and so we’re doing the Taber hall for that conversation.”
The series grew out of research meetings held earlier this year as well as Living Labs project funding applications in 202. They are seen as a chance to put various stakeholders in the same room to bounce ideas and methods off each other in a grassroots format.
“They’ve all seen things in their particular fields. This is our way of bringing them all together and letting them share all this information, not only with us, but with each other in a more intimate setting. So, you have to learn the name of the person at the table,” said Kjos.
“We hope to hear the innovative ideas that are coming from the farmers in these areas because it helps us drive relevant research. If there’s something that they think can work, but they haven’t had the access to tools or equipment or even just cursory area knowledge around the subject, we can help them out. Our biggest goal is expanding the number of community members that we get involved with. If farmers come by and they want to trial something, even if it’s kind of like lukewarm in the room, if they’re adamant, we’d love to help them out. We’d love to help them find an answer either way.”
Kjos said the capacity for each session is approximately 30 producers with availability still open in each one. They will run from 1-3 p.m.
For more information, contact Kjos at [email protected] or 403-363-2299 or Jamie Puchinger at [email protected] or 403-308-9344.
