Results Driven Agriculture Research (RDAR) has just passed its fifth anniversary of incorporation, and the group has accomplished a great deal in those five years.
“Our major success is continuing to build on generating sound income,” said Mark Redmond, Chief Executive Officer of RDAR.
“It’s not a single activity that we’ve engaged in, but rather the broad spectrum of results that we are continuing to put into the hands of producers.”
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WHY IT MATTERS: RDAR’s work in Alberta has made significant impacts on hundreds of operations across the province.
The impact for pork, for example, has the objective of getting a significant number of projects in the hands of producers in three to five years, said Redmond.
“I think 50 per cent of our projects are scheduled to do that,” he said.
Producer engagement continues to grow, and Redmond said the profile of RDAR is growing within producer groups.
At this point, RDAR is reviewing over 300 projects a year. In 2024, they funded 122 projects.
“We can’t understate the challenge for reviewing of all that work. We outperform most other research funding agencies in terms of those numbers, and the fact that we can quickly turn around on funding decisions,” he said.
A typical decision on a project takes an average of six weeks, which includes peer review. Producers are engaged in the reviews.
Once proposals are reviewed, RDAR goes through an iterative process of improving the deliverables and defining goals, so they meet producer objectives.
“We talk about our innovation system in terms of that whole engagement with the research teams, rather than just judging the proposal. It’s very much a team approach,” he said.
Last year, RDAR put a new funding program in place called the producer research and evaluation project (PREP), that supports an everyday producer conducting a research project.
“I was just reviewing a report from a producer who took our concept of capturing snow to fill dugouts. The producer had remarkable success in that delivery,” said Redmond.
“There’s a great example that you can say is low tech, although there’s a lot of physics that went into the design of fencing,” he said.
Redmond attended Farmfair International in Edmonton, where he promoted that initiative to farmers.
“I like being in contact directly with the producer base, and it ties with our mandate to be producer-led. This really closes the full circle,” he said.
Being producer-led means projects are immediately relevant to the farmers and ranchers of the province.
“In the past, research has been academically led, or government programs led at a very high level,” he said.
RDAR’s process involves engaging producers and the 30 member organizations (such as Alberta Beef Producers, Alberta Pork and the Alberta Pulse Growers) and discovering what is a priority to their membership. That brings immediate relevancy to the work done by RDAR, said Redmond.
“We can directly affect farm gate receipts and meet producers’ wishes for their operations,” he said.
Redmond said the projects are also determined by the 4P principles, which include profitability, productivity, protecting the land and passing it on. These contribute to the longevity of agricultural communities, and projects must meet the deliverables.
Redmond said RDAR also looks for clear economics descriptors for the producer.
“If there’s a new technique or practice out there, what’s it going to cost to adopt that change? What’s the return on investment?” he said.
RDAR partners with the applied research associations and forage associations through the province to give farmers a hand when adopting changes.
Originally RDAR was going to be just a grant reviewing agency, but it has now become an integral part of agriculture, said Redmond.
Some of RDAR’s programs, like the On-Farm Climate Action Fund (OFCAF) are growing rapidly.
“OFCAF is a tremendous success story,” said Redmond. Over two million acres in the province are in OFCAF projects.
RDAR is also using what they call “research tables.” The tables bring together producers, sector experts and members of the RDAR team. The team then puts out a specific, targeted funding call to address those needs. One table is in beef production.
“In that program we’re looking at genetics in terms of improving efficiencies of animal production, as well as other environmental factors that are going to restore the herd to the numbers that are needed to maintain the industry. We need to be able to feed those animals. Forages are very important,” he said.
RDAR has made a major investment with Western Crop Innovations to create a focus on feed and forage for the beef industry.
The second research table is water and irrigation.
“Certain irrigation efficiencies are getting better water use out of the water that is available,” he said.
One project RDAR supported was the South Saskatchewan River Basin assessment, which includes studying the water in the river basin to gain efficiencies.
“That particular model actually has become a nationally recognized approach in terms of how to best manage water and water usage,” he said.
RDAR is also funding studies which will help farmers use their data to make good, practical decisions that can be employed quickly on the farm.
The third table is soil health.
“We learned a lot from having inquiries on different subjects,” he said.
RDAR went on the road last fall and travelled from Rycroft in the Peace Country to Lacombe to Medicine Hat. They brought together 50 or 60 people to talk about soil health.
“What was fascinating with this exercise was that with every stop with RDAR on the road, we had a different interpretation of what soil health is. We’re busy working through how best to put that knowledge into practice,” he said.
“We spent a lot of time listening and learning.”
RDAR currently has 550 projects that are responses to specific funding calls. These calls are designed to tackle emerging threats and challenges to agriculture in specific areas.
There are 11 professors across the province engaged in research in critically important areas, and they spend a lot of their time in research extension and working directly with producers.
RDAR’s strategic framework calls on the organization to continue delivering products to the farm.
“That’s the neat thing now. We’re seeing projects coming to their conclusion,” he said.
Each project has a final report. The reports are read, and the team learns from them in terms of what worked, and what can be communicated to producers in terms of practices which can be adopted and changed.
“In the future, I think there will be other opportunities to rapidly put in opportunities to improve production,” said Redmond.
RDAR is currently working with Farm Credit Canada on an AI-backed chat engine called Root, that can address problems on the farm.
