Hittinger, the chair of Gateway Research Organization, collaborates with Results Driven Agriculture Research (RDAR) and is involved with the On-Farm Climate Action Fund (OFCAF).

“The opportunity came up and they were looking for someone to trial the system, and I thought it might be a good fit for my operation,” said Hittinger, who runs 200 head on 1,600 acres of pasture.

WHY IT MATTERS: More virtual fencing options in Canada give ranchers more opportunities to find the right fit for their operation.

How Halter works

The Halter system, created in New Zealand, uses GPS-controlled collars with a solar panel to charge the battery. Hittinger’s trial will also examine how the units function in Canadian cold weather.

Using an app or an aerial image on the internet, producers set up virtual fences wherever they want them.

“You don’t have a physical fence in place. You tell the map, ‘This is where I want this virtual fence to be.’ It downloads the GPS information to each collar, and the collars then know whether they are inside or outside of that boundary, and they guide the cows that way,” he said.

Hittinger can program a virtual fence for a specific herd and put cattle in an area of pasture that is not cross-fenced.

“I draw the fence in the app on the map, and that information is downloaded to the collars via Wi-Fi and then the collars know via GPS signal where they are in proximity to that,” he said.

Cattle are directed into a specific area, called a break. If they try to cross the virtual fence, the collar gives off an audible tone.

“If they continue to cross and continue further, then they get a shock that’s delivered by the collar,” he said. “Once they’re all trained, they will turn around at the sound of the tone. The shock usually provides a second level warning.”

Other virtual fencing options in Canada include systems by Gallagher, NoFence and Vence. Unlike the Gallagher system, where the collar hangs on a strap around the cow’s neck, Halter uses a metal fibre woven into the collar itself.

“The collar looks like a seat belt. They’re adjustable and you can fit them to fit with certain tension on their neck. You don’t want them to fall off, but you don’t want it too tight, particularly on younger animals. You need to provide some room to grow,” said Hittinger.

Advantages of the Halter system

Hittinger has found several benefits. He can manage cattle location from anywhere.

“I can do it from wherever I am,” he said.

He can also divide feeding into blocks on a flexible schedule.

“If I want to do one-day blocks, I could feed, say, five one-day blocks of feed. Or I could do a week’s worth, say, seven blocks of feed. Right now, we’re feeding five silage bales a day. I can roll out five bales in each of the seven paddocks and then have it so the virtual fence moves every day at a set time, whenever I decide that should be,” he said.

The primary benefit is moving cattle without physical fencing.

“For winter feeding, that makes swath grazing quite a bit easier. That makes bale grazing quite a bit easier because I don’t have to go wading through the snow and worry about the cattle pushing on the electric wire, or all the issues surrounding fencing in a winter-feeding system,” he said.

Bred heifers and second calvers with higher nutritional needs can be grouped separately.

“I will go out and feed the bulk of all of these animals in one group, but those animals that need extra nutrition, I give those animals access to a separate area where they can get better hay,” he said.

In summer, Hittinger will be able to rotational graze using half-day, one-day or three-day moves — whatever suits his operation.

Cost and practical considerations

The Halter system is subscription-based at $97 per collar. Towers must also be purchased at about $6,000 each. By comparison, Gallagher collars run about $350 to $400 depending on volume.

Hittinger noted that producers still need a perimeter fence even with virtual fencing. During windstorms or lightning, cattle will scatter and cross the virtual boundary.

The Halter system will be eligible under OFCAF funds for the new funding year, which opens April 10, 2026. The Canadian Forage and Grassland Association also has funds available for producers who want to try the system.

The post First Canadian trial of Halter virtual fencing system underway near Westlock appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

“We made some changes to AgSmart last year. It worked out well, but we felt we needed some further refinement,” said Todd Ormann, vice-president of external relations and research at Olds College.

“When we sat down and we started looking at where we’re at, it became clear that we didn’t think we had it strategically aligned yet. We really need some time to rework that out.”

WHY IT MATTERS: Olds College is a key hub for agriculture education and research, but its AgSmart event needs revamping to better serve attendees and the industry.

Making all the necessary changes to AgSmart by July 2026 was not feasible.

AgSmart is an educational exposition and is becoming more of a conference instead of a trade show.

Conferences don’t tend to make a lot of money, and the model to host AgSmart needs to be sustainable.

AgSmart premiered in 2019, paused during COVID-19 in 2020, and started up again in 2021. AgSmart partnered with Agri-Trade in 2024.

Over the years, people came for the presentations and displays.

“We always get good feedback and scores on the speeches, the talks and all those pieces,” Ormann said.

Changes needed

However, some of the vendors who paid for booth space were not getting the amount of traffic they wanted.

“People are not coming to visit those like they do at Ag in Motion, or Agri-Trade. They’re coming for the speakers,” he said.

Ormann said the group needs to think about how they restructure. AgSmart is likely going to become a conference, with on-ground learning sites, he said.

“We’re thinking about how we position this show as an exposition that showcases a lot of applied research that we see here in Canada and Western Canada. We’d like to get better engagement from places like Lethbridge Polytechnic, Lakeland College, Assiniboine College and the University of Saskatchewan,” he said.

“We haven’t started those conversations yet.”

Last year, AgSmart went from being a full field tent-based set up to a conference that had indoor talks on campus as well as some outdoor demonstrations. Ormann said the new event format received a lot of good feedback, and people appreciated air conditioning in the middle of July.

Who attends the show

Ormann said the other nuance is who is targeted to attend the show.

“It is really a combination of farmers, industry and government. The unique thing is because it’s a learning exposition, it’s a good opportunity for the entire industry to get together and collaborate across the spectrum. That’s where we’re trying to go with the show, whereas Ag in Motion is really focused at farmers, and so is Agri-Trade,” he said.

AgSmart hopes to become more of an exposition to merge researchers, industry, farmers and government funders.

The show has mainly focused on ag tech, both in the livestock and crop sectors.

“We’re always going to have a strong product focus, and a focus on technology, but we can also have conversations about agriculture and what we need as an industry to basically go forward,” Ormann said.

He said the group needs to think about how they develop a learning exposition, and how they engage others in showcasing their research.

“And we do want to make sure people see it as a western Canadian show,” he said.

The show was previously three days, but there is a discussion about shortening it to two. Ormann said AgSmart is also examining ideal dates. The show is currently held in July.

“It’s honestly really hard to find that right time, because there is Calgary Stampede, Westerner Days, Ag in Motion and by August, southern Alberta is harvesting again,” he said.

If the show is less field-based, it might be possible to move it out of July, said Ormann.

The post AgSmart hits pause for ’26 as Olds College plans major 2027 relaunch appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

With AdFarm’s Brady Stadnicki serving as moderator, three Alberta producers were questioned on how they’ve innovated on their farms as well as some of the macro issues facing ag today.

The producer participants included Josh Fankhauser, a fifth-generation lamb farmer from Claresholm; Emily Ford, senior agronomist with Quattro Ventures and Bow Island-area producer; and David Benjamin, a first-generation hay and forage farmer in southern Alberta.

Q: When you think about your farm over the next three-to-five years, what do you see on the horizon, whether it’s an opportunity or a challenge or a big decision that you’re looking to make?

Ford promoted a positive perception of AI’s role in agriculture.

A: “There’s so much technology out there right now and there’s a lot coming at us and it’s really fast, but I don’t know if we’re using it to its full potential yet as far as AI and all these sorts of things,” she said.

“So I think in the next three-to-five years, (AI is) going to help us streamline our decision-making process (and) hopefully add clarity to some of the decisions that we make, enable us to use the data that we collect so much of to make actual decisions that can help and reduce some of the noise.”

Q: I’m curious to know what areas you’re managing most on the farm today.

Although Fankhauser enjoys seeing a group of employees evolve into a well-oiled machine, he said getting to that point can be a challenge.

A: “If you can keep the labour part working and you can kind of somehow build a team that makes everything go right, if you can get trustworthy people, then the rest is easy,” he said.

“How to build teams and how to make the teams work together is kind of my biggest challenge. And you always got new ones coming in and old ones leaving and dynamics are constantly changing.

“It’s just something that you don’t think about as a farmer … that you’re an HR manager now, and that’s pretty much my role: HR.”

Q: What tools or technology are you most interested in right now?

Fankhauser is interested in precision spraying technology such as green-on-green and green-on-brown, but is still working out how they would fit into his operation, adding he may skip the new ground spray tech altogether and buy a drone.

A: “Some of this drone AI self-learning tech could be pretty beneficial, especially when you want to do off-the-wall things like spot spray or you just want to spray this plant in this row.”

Benjamin talked about the challenge of separating needs and wants with farm tech.

A: “If you’re looking online at a trade show, there are a lot of cool things on each side of that spectrum. So you take half of that spectrum and say, ‘I’m going to focus on the needs first (and) dream later’.”

Q: Are there some areas in your operation where you wish there was a better solution or something new, maybe something that just isn’t quite developed yet, but would solve a pain point?

The solution to any challenge exists somewhere, said Benjamin, but it may require stepping out of one’s comfort zone.

A: “Agriculture is a fantastic industry that has some of the smartest people working in it, and that solution does exist. It’s knowing where to go and, as an example, when we upgraded our no-till drill, we couldn’t find what we needed within our local dealer circuit.

“So in 2023 we travelled to Agritechnica and crawled under every drill essentially available in the world. So we had to go to Germany … to find some of this information.”

Q: What are one or two things you wish companies understood better about your operation and how you make decisions?

One of Fankhauser’s biggest pet peeves is doing business with people who are unaware of the scale and nature of modern farming.

A: “We’re not Old Macdonald’s farm anymore. There’s very few farms I know that could actually fit that model. Even a small farm (or) what we would consider small is (a) multi-million dollar enterprise.

“We’re the C-suite, right? We’re the CEOs, the CFOs and all those people. And when you come to sell me something or present me something, I will do my homework on you. So … you better do your homework. Send somebody with knowledge.”

Q: Can you think of one small change on your operation that had a bigger impact than you expected?

A: “I can think of one, and it seems simple, but it’s been so effective,” said Ford.

“Every year we send out a survey to our employees (and) ask them … what would make your life easier to come to work every day? What’s something that you need in the shop?

“As a management group, we review the results once a year, and that’s where we drive what we’re going to work on for the coming year. And it’s all based on our employees’ feedback on how to make it a better place to work. And we’ve had great success and improved employee retention and things like that, just by listening and giving them a platform.”

Benjamin also likes to turn to employees for input. Sometimes the question can be as simple as “What do you want to work on?”

A: “Sometimes you’d be surprised at what these people respond with what they want to be involved with on the farm, whether it’s a contractor or an employee.”

The post Alberta farmers get an ‘Ask me anything’ at Crossroads conference appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Chris Paterson, executive director of AgSphere, has extensive experience working with big and small companies in Alberta and the United States.

Through his storied career, Paterson saw the innovation process work in multinationals, corporate venture capital, corporate innovation and research and development.

WHY IT MATTERS: A physical hub for innovation in agri-food in Calgary will help keep innovators and investors in Western Canada instead of taking their talents and dollars elsewhere.

When Paterson moved back to Canada, he spotted gaps in the ecosystem, compared to jurisdictions he’d been involved with in Europe and the U.S., including Raleigh, N.C., St. Louis, Mo., and Austin, Texas.

“There were places I’d seen innovation happen, not just within one company or one university. It was an ecosystem. What we lacked was a coordinated effort,” he said.

Paterson noticed isolation between companies, scientists and investors, who were all working in silos.

He wanted to focus on innovation and join players together including universities, investors, multinationals and start up innovators. He also wants to include farmers and consumers in the equation.

He received $2.75 million in funding from the Calgary Economic Development Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund (OCIF).

Calgary Economic Development was the first partner, followed by the Calgary Stampede, Olds College and AdFarm, who will be contributing strategy and marketing.

The consortium came together in spring 2025, and AgSphere launched publicly on Dec. 2. Paterson is working on expanding the network globally.

“Just a few years ago, say pre-COVID, we did not have agri-food focused investors, and we did not have agri-food focused tech and we did not have SMART Farms emerging across the nation,” he said.

“There is momentum right now. Some of these strategic innovation assets have already started to emerge and we’re fuelling that up. What AgSphere is, is a hub to try and co-ordinate the process of innovation and the things I call innovation assets, in a meaningful way.”

New home in the works

The company has an office but will soon be based on the Calgary Stampede grounds and will feature a science and educational centre on agri-food. Food innovation will be happening on site, which could include food labs, a food court and the opportunity for entrepreneurs to showcase what they’re doing and show it to the public. The site will also feature a co-working space and an events centre.

“You couldn’t get a better place to base an innovation hub. Because ultimately, it’s not only the upstream of innovation which could happen in an innovation campus or even on a university,” he said.

The Stampede grounds are currently in the process of reconstruction, so AgSphere doesn’t have a specific relocation date yet.

Based on success

Paterson named Innovation Place at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon as an example of a successful innovation hub.

“We want to do more of that, because we have a lot of other really strategic assets here, which includes our farms and our universities that are underutilized and maybe even unknown,” he said.

“We don’t have a lack of capital, but we need to use our capital and attract our capital to stay here and not leap to other jurisdictions.”

Other goals of AgSphere include stopping the leaking of capital and the talent pool. Paterson wants entrepreneurs and research and development to stay here.

“Let’s use our assets locally and not send them away to other jurisdictions that are better organized. The second goal is just to drive innovation more purposely towards outcomes. … So commercial outcomes, whether that is export products, new food products or in the realm of technology, data, robotics and autonomy,” he said.

“We have a lot of talent and a lot of competencies in these areas, but we often don’t have the right mix to fund them all the way down the pathway, and then we lose them before they become commercial successes.”

“We need to do a better job of being purposeful about where we should be innovating, that will be here, and employ people, pay tax revenue and interact with the public.”

Global reach, local impact

AgSphere already has a partnership with European Innovation and Technology (EIT) and it’s part of the European Union Innovation fund and has existed for 14 years.

“They’ve already figured out a lot of the important things for an innovation community, like governance, structure, the corporate partnership model and the university engagement model,” said Paterson.

AgSphere will be following EIT’s example, to move faster and make fewer mistakes and will also be collaborating with EIT to figure out their internal processes. Canada is already an investor in Horizon EU.

“We’re part of the member countries as if we were part of the EU. We have some rights and privileges there to get funding back for our entrepreneurs here,” he said.

Paterson said market access is an advantage for a Calgary-based business. But even though Calgary is the hub of AgSphere, the geography of the hub will be much larger. It will eventually spread through the Prairies and to the rest of Canada.

“It’s a Canada-wide innovation network,” he said.

Future-forward

One of the next steps is an exchange of entrepreneurs with EIT. They will send a cohort of tech companies to Canada and AgSphere will give them a “red carpet experience” where they will be able to meet investors, customers, retailers, universities and processors and see what type of grants exist.

This process could encourage European companies to move to Canada or set up an office here.

Canadian tech companies will also be travelling to Europe, and EIT would provide those solid connections, and explain European opportunities.

Paterson said AgSphere also has opportunities in Asia, Australia and Brazil.

“The first thing you’ll see from AgSphere will be the exchange of entrepreneurs. The next thing you’ll see is the events that will be for attracting the talent pool and attracting capital to this jurisdiction,” he said.

The post AgSphere cultivates new era for agri-food innovation appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

That’s what experts said at a recent Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute (CAPI) webinar. Panellists said the country’s agricultural innovation system needs major improvements if it hopes to keep pace with other leading food-producing nations.

Panellists disagreed on whether the situation already counts as a crisis, but all agreed that change is needed soon.

“When I think of innovation, it’s really part of a continuum,” said Darcy Pawlik, executive director of the Wheat Growers Association — one of the camp that does typify the innovations gap as a crisis.

“It starts with research … the universities are doing a great job. I think we’ve got a lot of successes that need to be celebrated.”

The problem, Pawlik added, is those successes often don’t carry through to commercialization or getting new technologies and ideas out into the field.

“I think that’s a good example of where we’re really faltering,” he said.

Furthermore, Pawlik argued, Canada has not done a good job building new agriculture-focused companies or supporting startups.

Among other arguments, industry has long suggested that Canada’s regulatory environment has not set a stage that encourages innovation, and there needs to be considerable streamlining to pave a smoother path for those advances.

A growing innovation gap

Canada’s performance in research and development (R&D) continues to decline internationally, listeners heard. The country dropped from 14th to 17th in the Global Innovation Index rankings this past year, said Omer Kaya, CEO of Global Advantage Consulting Group.

“We have a $26 billion a year gap when it comes to R&D expenditures in Canada, across all sectors of the economy,” Kaya said.

He said that Canada spends about $55 billion a year on research and development, equal to about 1.8 per cent of its gross domestic product. Of that, $33 billion comes from industry, $18.5 billion from universities and colleges, $2.7 billion from the federal government and around $500 million from provincial governments.

Most of the gap between Canada and other developed economies comes from lower business investment, Kaya noted. He added that Canada struggles to turn research into practical results, and that there needs to be better collaboration between researchers, developers and end users.

Agriculture’s quiet crisis

Within that wider challenge, agriculture has its own issues. Public investment in agricultural research has been declining for the past 40 years (21 per cent since the 1980s), and private-sector investment now represents only about one quarter of the total, the listeners heard.

Elisabeta Lika, a research associate with CAPI, described it as a gradual problem rather than a sudden collapse.

“I see this more as a quiet kind of crisis, one that is creeping through this underinvestment … (There’s) fragmentation, there’s missed opportunities,” Lika said.

She further argued that Canadian agriculture’s research infrastructure is getting long in the tooth.

“I see this more as a quiet kind of crisis, one that is creeping through this underinvestment …”

–Elisabeta Lika, Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute

Long-standing research institutions and commodity groups may feel the system is still functioning, she noted, but others in newer value chains say it is broken.

“I think that we can all agree that the system can and should deliver better to the sector,” Lika said.

Funding pressures hit universities

Angela Bedard, dean of the College of Agriculture and Bioresources at the University of Saskatchewan, said she tries to take a more balanced view.

“I tend not to be too much of an alarmist. I try to be a bit more of a pragmatic person,” Bedard said.

“Could we do better? Of course, absolutely, there’s lots of spaces where we are fragmented, but not completely shattered.”

Universities face tighter budgets as provincial funding declines and federal caps limit the number of international students, she said. Even in Saskatchewan, where space remains available, the policy changes have discouraged applications.

Aging research facilities are a particular challenge for agricultural research, which requires access to land, laboratories, and animal care facilities, she added. Maintaining and upgrading these facilities is costly, and even more so when trying to plan for the future rather than simply keeping pace with current practices.

Need for co-ordination and action

Canada also lacks clear data on how research and development funds are divided between basic, applied and experimental research and that makes it difficult to design effective policy, Kaya said.

Investment needs to extend beyond research itself to include modern equipment, intellectual property development and collaboration that allows people to work as a connected network rather than in isolation, he added.

“We work all as an individual, and we tend to work within an organization,” Kaya said.

“The sector is still exploring how to work effectively in networks and networks of networks.”

The three panellists agreed that fragmentation and lack of co-ordination are holding back progress.

Canada has national strategies for critical minerals, artificial intelligence and quantum computing, but not for agriculture, Kaya pointed out. Other countries, including Australia and the Netherlands, have established national plans for agricultural innovation.

Farm Credit Canada, meanwhile, estimates the Canadian economy could gain $30 billion over the next decade simply by matching the productivity growth of the previous decade, Kaya noted.

A call for leadership

Tyler McCann, CAPI’s managing director and moderator of the discussion, also noted that Canada does not yet have a national agricultural innovation plan.

Bedard suggested a “confederated” model that would share accountability among regions while maintaining national co-ordination. She said a fully federal approach could be viewed as too Ontario-focused and might create regional tensions, while a shared model would allow strong ideas developed in one region to be tested and applied in others.

Pawlik returned to Canada after working abroad and found multiple consultations taking place across government and industry, but all focused on maintaining the status quo.

“I think what we’ve seen to date is that we always defer, and it’s just these little tweaks that don’t really move the needle,” he said.

He argued that Canada must set clear goals and hold itself accountable in a competitive global environment.

Lika agreed that government leadership is essential, especially when it comes to stable funding and regulatory frameworks. She compared it to how provinces eased trade barriers during COVID-19, which helped some businesses but did not fundamentally change the system. The lesson, she said, is that co-ordination should allow the best ideas to rise naturally rather than trying to pick winners in advance.

Canada cannot afford to spend years developing strategies that are never put into action, Kaya believes.

Canada needs a bold agricultural innovation plan that brings together governments, universities, businesses, Indigenous communities and value chains across the country, he added.

The post Canada’s agricultural innovation in crisis? appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

A grain drying system was on the list in late October when the RCMP reported a string of incidents where internet accessible control systems had been hacked.

In one case, water pressure values were tampered with at a community water facility, an Oct. 29 release noted. False alarms plagued an oil-and-gas company after hackers got access to a automated tank gauge. In the case of the farm, temperature and humidity levels were altered — a potentially dangerous prospect when it comes to grain dryers.

WHY IT MATTERS: Grain dryer settings are carefully controlled to reduce the risks of a dryer fire.

Ottawa warned that many of these systems in use on farms are old and have outdated security features, which allow hackers to gain access to them and then into other programs controlled by the same device.

Hacks have taken various forms from malicious damage to ransomware attacks.

According to a 2024 survey by MNP, farms may be particularly vulnerable to these types of attacks, with hackers targeting the various internet accessible control systems used, such as grain bin monitoring or automated dairy barn systems. Adding to that vulnerability, the survey found 80 per cent of the 541 farms in the study had no security plan in place.

“(Farmers) are rapidly modernizing things with connected tractors and remote sensors with everything automated, like watering bowls and grain dryers” says Tyler Moffitt, senior security analyst at OpenText Cybersecurity.

“The problem with many of these systems is they were never designed to be connected to the internet. They’re decades old, designed to last 20 years and not fend off modern tactics and modern criminals.

“Hackers, whether it’s for money or activism, know this and they probe for misconfigured or unauthenticated access every day. That’s usually how they get in.”

That means these older control systems provide an easy gateway to gain access to a farm’s digital system. And once in, they can then infiltrate other programs and software.

“Hackers don’t struggle,” he adds.

“They have no problem getting in through these exposed services. A lot of the time it’s weak or absent log-in protection. We see this all the time.”

Big picture problem

Moffitt said the vulnerability of these older control systems is so significant that hackers could disrupt food and agricultural management systems on a national scale.

These kinds of attacks have caused serious damage at chemical plants and other types of industrial operations just by something as simple as disrupting temperature controls, causing explosions or other damage.

Historically, hackers were motivated by activism, such as animal rights groups, but now attacks are primarily motivated by money through ransomware.

“They cut off your (file) access and demand payment to restore them,” says Moffitt.

While paying these extortionists isn’t a guarantee they will restore files and service, Moffitt says most of the time they do.

“The ransom or extortion racket wouldn’t have any credence and no one would pay if they didn’t get operations back,” he says.

“So around 95 per cent (do).”

Anatomy of a hack

Many times these criminal hackers frame it as involuntary security testing, providing a victim with a breakdown of how they got in and what needs to be done to protect from further attacks.

“Which is kind of crazy,” adds Moffitt.

“It’s bottom of the barrel ethics justifying what they did. In the ransom note, they try and phrase it as if they’re doing you a service.”

Many attacks come from groups associated with unfriendly countries, such as Russia and North Korea. The number and co-ordination of attacks on infrastructure tends to increase when hostilities break out, such as the invasion of Ukraine.

After an announcement that Canada was pledging some material support for Ukraine, a railway was attacked by one of these groups.

Major farm equipment manufacturers such as Agco and Lemken have also been victimized.

However, other criminal groups are also engaging in hacks.

Are you at risk?

Moffitt says farmers should consider the older control systems they have to be the most vulnerable.

Passwords and access configurations should never be left as they were when installed with default settings, he says. Hackers can actually look those up and start an attempted hack from there. Despite that, he has found it common for many users to still use default settings, providing hackers an easy entry point.

Segmenting access to different online operations, keeping access to various software separate, such as through a VLAN (virtual local area network), can limit the damage from a hack.

If possible, removing systems from internet access removes the risk of hacker getting in through them.

“Set up secure gateways, rather than open ports,” Moffitt suggests.

“Multi-factor authentication is probably the biggest single thing you can do stop them.”

That involves authorizing access through two or more ways such as with an online password verified by a text sent to a cellphone at an predetermined number.

“Identity is the new perimeter,” Moffitt says.

“It’s the new attack (method) criminals are going after.”

The post Older farm technology may risk hacker attack appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Threshold UAV was selected as the top innovator by a panel of four judges at the awards presentation at Agri-Trade in Red Deer on November 6. The company’s presentation of their swarm mapping technology topped the four other presentations to earn this year’s top spot.

WHY IT MATTERS: Advanced drone capabilities can make field mapping quicker, more accurate and more affordable for today’s farmers.

Over the past three years, Threshold UAV CEO and founder, Mac Hunik, and his team have developed the SwarmBox, an all-in-one swarm mapping drone system that can cover 20 acres per minute with 10 drones. The drones, weighing in below 250 grams, are able to be operated without a special license, and they can handle winds of up to 55 km/h, which is an important factor in places like southern Alberta.

“The way that we feed people is changing faster now than ever before. In time of uncertainty, data-driven decision making takes guesswork out of the equation,” Hunik said.

“Recently, artificial intelligence and computer vision have begun to unlock new efficiencies on the farm, whether it’s damage quantification for crop insurance, locating rocks for picking or creating prescription maps for precision spraying.”

That’s where drone mapping comes in, he said. And although traditional drones have been useful to this point, they do have their inefficiencies.

“Drones have key issues when it comes to broad acre Canadian farms. These issues limit the ability of drones to meet the data input needs of next-gen AI solutions … The sheer size of broad acre fields poses a core problem. It simply takes too long to survey entire sections. Our solution is what we call swarm mapping.”

Threshold’s swarm mapping strategy puts multiple drones into action simultaneously with a control software working collaboratively with the swarm to collect imagery of vast areas.

“Swarm mapping resolves issues of licensing, battery life and operator skill. With a single click, operators can command a mapping swarm to quickly survey large areas,” Hunik said.

Hunik said the technology has been tested in the Lethbridge area, where the drone swarm has handled the heavy southern Alberta winds well.

“Because we’re distributing the load to multiple drones, the impact on the battery life is significantly less. And we were able to, for the most part, battle through those high winds and experiences relatively little issue compared to someone with one drone who would be burning a lot of energy flying one way into the wind,” he said.

Hunik has a background in aerial survey, spending years flying helicopter and aircraft LiDAR missions in the Canadian north. While doing that around 2018, he realized that clients were using the LiDAR data points for AI training purposes, and the beginnings of his vision for Threshold UAV was born.

“I started to think about the need in the future for a data-on-demand type of service where, regardless of the field and regardless of the application, we would be able to apply a point-and-shoot camera system to be able to very rapidly capture that data and preserve it. Because ultimately, in the future we won’t be able to come back and collect that high resolution data again,” he said.

“Change is here in a lot of ways. If climate shift continues to do what it’s doing and if certain economic factors impact the farm reality as we know it, I think there will be a lot of value to be extracted from having a tool like this now for farming of the future.”

Hunik said the $20,000 prize money will be great for Threshold to continue developing their product. But it is the public recognition that he is more excited about.

“It’s just what we need right now. We’re at an inflection point where we’re starting to push products out to the market, so having the audience here to be able to pitch to directly for our product is invaluable,” he said.

“Over the next year, our plan is to dial in the customer experience and make sure our software is ready to rock. After we’ve got a season under our belt with satisfied customers, we’ll look to scale into a SaaS (Software as a Service) model in the future.”

Those interested in getting their hands on a SwarmBox can put their name on a waitlist with Threshold UAV.

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The technology isn’t quite there yet, but it’s close, and an app recently released by Dalhousie University researchers can help train farmers and workers on what’s actually in a moo.

WHY IT MATTERS: Artificial intelligence is helping to process large volumes of data, creating resources that farmers have never had access to before.

The MooLogue app is one of two apps recently released by professor Suresh Neethirajan and his Mooanalytica research team at Dalhousie University.

The other app, called DairyAir Canada, quickly allows a farmer to assess the methane production on their farm over the past 15 years.

Both apps give a sense of the powerful tools that can be developed due to the advanced processing capabilities of artificial intelligence.

Neethirajan said MooLogue can give someone who hasn’t worked in agriculture before, or who may have worked on a livestock farm such as swine or poultry and is interested in working with cows, an early understanding of what they’ll hear in a dairy barn.

Developing the data behind the MooLogue app involved old-school research, however, as students installed sensors and recording devices at about 13 farms, at eight or nine locations on the farms — from calving and milking areas, to stalls and dry cow areas.

They collected many hours of vocalizations, then used artificial intelligence to compare the audio and the video that went with it, to connect the sound to what was happening in the barn, said Neethirajan, who has a joint appointment in the faculty of computer science and the faculty of agriculture.

The researchers connected the frequency of the moo and duration with events in a cow’s day.

When a mother cow is bonding with her calf, she will moo at about 120 to 280 Hz, low-frequency murmurs that last up to 2.5 seconds.

When a cow is in distress, its calls will be more urgent, at 600 to 1,200 Hz and will exceed three seconds in duration.

The researchers can now tell when cows are about to be fed, and when the cows are greeting each other. They can also tell when they are in heat.

Most experienced farmers can also combine the auditory signals from cows with what they observe in the barn to come up with similar conclusions about the state of a cow. Indeed, the team validated the sounds and results with experienced farmers.

However, with increasing numbers of farm employees coming from off the farm, these sounds can be used for training, as the app is currently set up to do.

“They can play with the app to better understand,” said Neethirajan. “This is a hunger call. This is frustration. She is going through heat.

“If there is a veterinary student, if they want to handle the cow without going and touching them, handling that animal, they can play with the app as a preliminary step.”

Future products could include what Neethirajan referred to as a “black box” that could sit in the barn and record sounds, process those sounds and provide a report to the farmer remotely or when she is back in the barn.

One of his doctoral students is working on a cow translator, using natural language processing, figuring out how to turn a moo into something that accurately fits human languages.

When cow frustration was measured in 300 different contexts, “we were able to see patterns, specific letters and specific words started emerging, constantly coming in that particular context.”

Another step is to see what other breeds have to say. Holsteins were used as they account for most of the animals on Canadian dairy farms, but there’s some work being done on beef cattle. It’s more challenging however, because beef breeds and other cattle in other parts of the world aren’t housed indoors.

Monitoring methane

Methane released by cow burps after digestion and manure pits is one of the leading concerns around climate change related to livestock farming, but there have been few tools to measure and monitor individual farm methane output.

Neethirajan’s Mooanalytica lab has released the DairyAir Canada app, which can show each dairy farm in the country their methane release trends from Jan. 1, 2010, to Dec. 31, 2024. The methane is not tracked in real time.

The research team used data from three different satellites, including NASA’s Terra, Europe’s Sentinel-5P and Japan’s GOSAT. The data was then parsed and smoothed, so that each farm had a rating.

The app isn’t just a snapshot, it also allows farmers to compare their data to others within a 50 to 100 kilometre radius, their own provincial average and a national distribution of methane emissions. They can do analysis based on seasons and can download reports.

Across the country, the results could be different based on management, climate and building design.

Neethirajan said this creates a benchmark for farmers. They can then take action, depending on what they learn.

Overall, Neethirajan said methane emissions have continued to increase on dairy farms across the country over the past 15 years. Some years Ontario was the leader, but other years Quebec had the largest emissions.

The research for the apps was supported by Dairy Farmers of Canada and government funding programs for agriculture.

Both MooLogue and DairyAir Canada are available for Apple and, as of Oct. 14, for Google devices.

The post Moo translator and methane measures: There’s an app for that appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Canadians, especially those involved in agriculture, never miss a chance to talk about the weather. The logical next step is to measure it and, when we can, share those observations with the wider community.

So let’s look at just what kind of home weather station you can get at an entry level, mid-range, and high level. We will then explore just a few of the many systems there are available at these three different entry points.

Just the basics

At the entry level, budget stations focus on key measurements: temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure. These units typically rely on small sensor packages mounted near your house and transmit data wirelessly to an indoor display. They provide a straightforward snapshot of current conditions, which is often enough for casual users. If you go this route, prioritize models that include minimum/maximum readings, as these add context to the day’s weather. Also look for user-replaceable sensors, since cheaper units tend to wear out faster in extreme climates.

For those just starting out, a newer brand of weather station I came across is the VEVOR 5-in-1 Weather Station for around $99. It provides wireless measurements of indoor and outdoor temperature, wind, rainfall, and humidity. As I have not used this particular brand, or know of anyone who has, I cannot comment on quality or reliability.

Next up, the La Crosse Wireless Weather Forecaster station for about $75 and available at Canadian Tire. It offers a bright, easy-to-read display and outdoor sensors that measure temperature, humidity and wind speed, but no rainfall.

If you’re not too worried about measuring wind and rainfall but would rather have multiple temperature and humidity sensors, then the AcuRite 02082M Home Temperature And Humidity Station, about $105, delivers three different temperature and humidity sensors and is known for good sensor accuracy and handles cold winters well.

Moving up

Stepping into the mid-range opens the door to more specialized data. Stations in this category commonly add wind speed and direction, rainfall measurement, and better sensor shielding to improve accuracy. For rural or agricultural users, these extra measurements make a big difference. A well-designed rain gauge that resists clogging and a properly sited anemometer provide far more insight than basic weather stations can. Many mid-range systems also allow data logging, letting you keep track of trends over weeks or months — a valuable feature for anyone watching growing season moisture or early season frost risk.

These stations tend to cover the usual weather readings but also add in connectivity, which allows you to access your data remotely and usually anyone else.

The Explore Scientific 5-in-1 Wi-Fi Professional Weather Station coming in around $200 brings real-time data for wind, rain, humidity, and temperature straight to your phone or tablet.

The Ambient Weather WS-2000, about $490, steps further with a vivid console and Wi-Fi connectivity to services such as Weather Underground. As some of you may know, I own an Ambient system and discovered that their weather stations are rebranded Ecowitt stations with the Ecowitt station often priced much cheaper. Also, shipping and duty for an Ambient station can quickly add up. Overall, I will leave it up to you as to which brand you might be interested in.

For rugged dependability, the Davis Vantage Vue, roughly $550, is built to survive any type of prairie weather, earning a reputation for professional-grade accuracy in a compact form, and while it is getting a little pricy, it is still good value.

Top tier

The top tier of weather stations take things a step further by emphasizing sensor quality, durability, and connectivity. These systems often use higher-grade materials, radiation shields, and precision components that hold calibration better over time. They typically offer advanced data integration, allowing you to upload your measurements to online networks, view them on phone apps, or use a computer to analyze them. Some even support add-on sensors such as soil moisture probes, UV sensors, and solar radiation monitors. For hobbyists and professionals alike, this level of detail can support everything from home research projects to long-term environmental monitoring.

For those who want this sort of system, Davis tends to lead the field. The Vantage Pro2, about $1,400, features precision instruments for wind, rainfall, pressure and temperature, producing data consistent enough for research or local reporting. Its big sibling, the Vantage Pro2 Plus (around $2,000), adds UV and solar sensors, making it very suitable for agriculture. This is the station I owned for years before it finally stopped working and I just couldn’t find it in me to spend that much money to replace it.

Getting it right

Regardless of price point, there are a few universal considerations.

First, placement matters as much as the equipment itself. Temperature sensors should be shaded and ventilated; wind sensors need open exposure; rain gauges must sit level and free from obstructions. Second, consider how the unit communicates, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or proprietary radio links all have advantages, depending on your setup and distance from the house. Finally, think about maintenance. Annual cleaning, occasional recalibration, and battery changes extend the life and accuracy of any station.

If a home weather station is in your future, figure out what you want in your station and do your research.

If you are unsure, start with a budget-friendly station and then see where you will go from there.

The post Is a weather station right for your farm? appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Using data-driven decisions on crop yields, bee behaviour and environmental factors to innovate and ensure farmers achieve optimal yields, Torrie was still finding some things lagging with the process and thought there must be a better way.

“I was feeling frustrated with some of the shortcomings of the industry in communication and how it worked. I thought to myself, ‘I can either sit and whine about it or I can do something about it and build something to fix the problem,’” said Torrie.

That’s how he came up with the fully functioning PollinLink app.

It is primarily for project management for seed canola and other crops, focusing on chemical safety and task management co-ordination.

Torrie was finding communication breakdowns in field co-ordination.

“It’s scheduling, managing, especially when you are doing it with multiple different companies. You’d be having three different companies asking you for something on the exact same day and you’d have to be the bad guy and explain why that doesn’t work. There was no centralized way of organizing all those efforts,” said Torrie, adding there are also safety concerns when communication breaks down and tasks are not aligned or spaced properly.

“There really isn’t any good system out there for alerting people if chemicals have been applied. You have people out in the field, and so the natural consequence of having everyone’s schedules and everyone is managed knowing when they are in and out of the field. Then it’s really easy to give chemical alerts to people. It alerts all the people tied to that field and says ‘hey don’t go in for 24 hours’.”

Torrie said interest is growing in efforts to co-ordinate pollinators, rouging crews and the major seed companies in the field, and the project is expanding into potatoes and some other industries.

“Hopefully it will be funded by grants. It has the potential for a lot of industry involvement. It fits in with the pollination side and seed canola,“ said Torrie.

The initial prototype was released in May as Torrie worked with a development team. He did not do the coding, but built the design, handled the sales side, provided funding and did the testing.

He had built a couple of apps using the program Appsheet, but for this huge project, he hired a team.

He hopes the app’s full capabilities will be realized over the next two years as it is updated.

“I have lists and lists in my head,” said Torrie.

“Specifically for leaf-cutter bees, incubation management, ways for people to be able to manage their crews and teams to get the job done in an efficient and safe manner.”

For more information, visit pollinlink.com.

The post Getting industries on the same page appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.