Reading Time: < 1 minute Olds College Smart Farm has received a $300,000 donation from BASF Digital Farming for HyperLayer data concept. This process collects and analyzes several layers of data from across the Smart Farm’s 2,800 acres. “It centres around compiling topographical data, detailed soil nutrient and moisture mapping, multi-spectral and hyper-spectral imagery, yield data, and other layers of […] Read more
Layering on digital data
Digital herd management project gets funding
Three-quarters of cow-calf producers still using pen and paper, says funding body
Reading Time: < 1 minute RDAR, the province’s independent research funding body, has given a grant to a project to encourage cattle producers to swap their pens for digital herd-management technology. “Seventy-five per cent of cow-calf producers use pen and paper for their herd record-keeping and management,” Results Driven Agriculture Research said in announcing a $43,000 grant to Flokk Systems […] Read more
Giving it the old college try has a new meaning these days
Reading Time: 2 minutes Lakeland College and Lethbridge College have each received a major funding boost and the pair has also joined five of their provincial counterparts to create a new research alliance. Lakeland is getting $1 million in federal funding for smart agriculture technology. It will be used to construct a new Livestock Reproductive Technology Laboratory and boost […] Read more
Deere, Bear Flag aim to automate tractors as ‘fast as possible’
Reuters – U.S. tractor maker Deere & Co said on Thursday it would buy tech startup Bear Flag Robotics for $250 million, with the goal of developing over the next year systems Deere can sell to allow farm tractors to operate without a human driver in the cab. “We are effectively in market with real […] Read more
Would you like a supercomputer with your cattle herd?
Big Data: Armchair Rancher will harness the power of big data and AI, and give Alberta producers ‘a leg up’
Reading Time: 3 minutes The ‘ancestry.com’ of the cattle industry is in development — and the app could give Alberta ranchers a leg up on the rest of the industry. Livestock Gentec, in collaboration with Alberta Innovates and the University of Alberta’s David Wishart, is creating an app that will help ranchers make better and faster decisions on the […] Read more
Opinion: A tale of three cheeseburgers and a vision of farming turned upside down
Increasingly, conventional agriculture is viewed as a model that’s due for replacement
Reading Time: 3 minutes Glacier FarmMedia – Farmers are no stranger to new technology and are usually quick to adopt developments that can increase production, or at the very least reduce the risk of losses. Most are well aware that the digital age is likely to bring transformative change to agriculture and food — even if they aren’t quite […] Read more
Smart Farm partners with Telus Agriculture
Reading Time: < 1 minute Olds College has struck a $1-million partnership with Telus Agriculture that will see the school’s Smart Farm serve as a “living lab to conduct applied research and test the real-world application of new technology in a commercial-scale agriculture setting.” This includes evaluating technology such as internet-connected weather stations and field sensors in live conditions. Telus […] Read more
Don’t put your networking on hold because you can’t meet in person
Making new contacts is as important as ever — here are four tips for networking virtually
Reading Time: 3 minutes You won’t be able to schmooze at events and conferences this winter, but it’s still important to network. However, it’s not easy, said Darlene McBain, who used to travel frequently in her job as manager of industry relations for Farm Credit Canada. Trying to build a network at her computer during the lockdown just felt […] Read more
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
Better rural broadband internet is coming — eventually
Ottawa is pledging $2 billion for fast rural internet, but how that money gets spent is the key question
Reading Time: 7 minutes Ottawa’s pledge to spend $2 billion to bring decent broadband service to rural and remote areas is welcome news, but the devil will be in the details, say officials in Alberta. “I’m encouraged to see the funding, but the full delivery of it is the next question — how will we be able to make […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
