Farms generate reams of data but that pales in comparison to the amount collected on Olds College’s Smart Farm. In order to make “data more usable for in-season management decisions,” the college has undertaken an ambitious project called HyperLayer Data Collection and Utilization.

College aims to tame the data beast running amok on today’s farms

Data can take farms to an entirely new level — but only if it doesn’t overwhelm you first

Reading Time: 4 minutes It seems like every part of your average farm is generating data these days — but your average farmers still don’t know what to do with it all. “The more data we have, the harder it is to figure out what to do with it,” said Simon Knutson, agriculture technology faculty instructor at Olds College. […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

Agco buys Manitoba ag autonomy firm JCA

Massey, Fendt maker boosts precision ag capacity

International farm equipment maker Agco is aiming to boost its bench strength in the precision agriculture and autonomous ag sectors by buying a Prairie software and hardware company known for both. Agco, the maker of machinery brands including Massey Ferguson, Fendt, Challenger and Valtra, said Monday it has bought Winnipeg-based JCA Technologies for an undisclosed […] Read more


A CNH manufacturing plant at Sorocaba, west of Sao Paulo in southeastern Brazil. (Photo courtesy CNH Industrial)

CNH sees revenues rising to 2024 on precision agriculture plans

Margin at agricultural unit seen at 14.5 to 15.5 per cent

Milan | Reuters — Italian-American vehicle maker CNH Industrial on Tuesday gave guidance for a total revenue growth of up to 24 per cent through 2024 as it presented a new business plan after spinning off its truck, bus and engine units. In a bid to focus on its higher-margin agriculture and construction machine businesses, […] Read more

A side view of Trimble’s EZ-Pilot Pro guidance system mounted on a tractor’s steering column. (Agriculture.trimble.com)

Trimble dealer shores up cross-Canada coverage

Vantage Canada picks up Ontario rights

The company handling sales and service for Trimble precision ag technology across most of Canada has reached a deal to handle the rest of it. Vantage Canada announced Friday it has bought the Trimble dealership rights and assets for Ontario from Premier Equipment, a John Deere dealership chain with nine locations in the province’s southern […] Read more



It’s still years away but Olds College officials say they can see a day when linking their self-driving DOT power platform to sensors and algorithms will take farming to an entirely new level. Olds College

Go grab a coffee, the robots have got this

Future of Farming: Hook sensors, cameras, algorithms, and self-driving machines together, and farming becomes a new ball game

Reading Time: 5 minutes Just picture it: You’ve been watching your crop get rained on all week from your kitchen window, and it’s about time to do some crop scouting to see if you need to spray. But your farm is way ahead of you. Soil sensors have been monitoring moisture levels, and they’ve already called for reinforcements. A […] Read more


The focus of Old College’s new ‘techgronomy’ diploma program is making practical use of precision ag technology, says James Benkie (left), pictured with college staff Mytayla Miller and Bill Bruce examining field sensors.

Forget the app, there’ll soon be a college grad for that

‘Techgronomy’ diploma program aims to train experts able to put the promise of precision ag into practice

Reading Time: 4 minutes For many, the term ‘precision agriculture’ is becoming a source of irritation — a buzzword that often seems more about jargon than things you can use on the farm today. Viewed from that angle, the title of Olds College’s new diploma program — Precision Agriculture – Techgronomy — may seem like more of the same. […] Read more

More and more, farmers are using drones in their farm operations. But are they getting the most bang for their buck to assist them with cropping decisions?

Remote sensing: A few flyovers isn’t nearly enough

It takes years of data (and boots on the ground) to really understand what’s happening in a field


Reading Time: 3 minutes So you’ve bought yourself a drone and a spiffy new multispectral camera. Sounds fun. But what now? It’s true that images from camera-equipped drones can offer a moment-in-time snapshot of yield or emergence. But what if you wanted to use remote sensing for something a little more robust, such as measuring nutrient variability in your […] Read more


(TopconPositioning.com)

Brandt buys GeoShack’s Ontario business

Deal makes equipment firm the exclusive Topcon dealer for Canada

Farm, forestry and construction equipment maker Brandt is about to buy itself a lock on the market for Topcon GPS equipment in Canada. The Regina-based Brandt Group announced Wednesday it has reached a deal to buy the assets of GeoShack Canada Co. and the Canadian assets of Inteq Distributors, both owned by Dallas-based Ultara Holdings. […] Read more

The vast majority of irrigators have adopted precision ag technology and more will follow as costs fall, says University of Lethbridge economist Lorraine Nicol.

Precision agriculture means less is more for irrigators

Technology has boosted yields while cutting both water use and inputs, says University of Lethbridge survey

Reading Time: 3 minutes Very few studies have examined precision agriculture in Canada, but a new one from University of Lethbridge researchers has put some numbers on the benefits. And they’re big — both in terms of reducing inputs and in boosting yields. Last fall, economists Lorraine Nicol and Chris Nicol surveyed irrigators in the Taber Irrigation District and […] Read more