Science has enriched the world in countless ways: the light bulb, penicillin, crazy glue. Speaking on the latter, research is the glue that holds the grain sector together. Alberta Grains annually approves funding for multiple studies that may benefit farmers.

Olds College of Agriculture and Technology is assessing a machine that mimics lightning to create crop nutrients. The Thunder 365 allows farmers to make their own salt-free liquid fertilizer literally out of thin air. “The cost of fertilizers like urea and anhydrous ammonia has been extremely volatile, with prices peaking at historic highs in recent years,” said Angie Stoute, a research technician at Olds College. “If there’s a way to get that cost down, that’s a great thing.”

In August 2025, GrainsWest spoke with Wolf about the use of optical spot sprayer technology in Western Canada. As a variety of products enter the marketplace and advancements in this technology roll out, he predicts big things are yet to come.

University of Guelph graduate Riley McConachie recently earned a master’s degree in plant agriculture and credits his advisors with suggesting he use newly released AI technology in his thesis project. This prompted his idea to combine the use of Meta AI’s Segment Anything software with remote sensing technology to evaluate crop disease.

Interest in gene editing is on the rise, and this technology is now being used in cereal breeding for the first time. As wheat farmers continue to grapple with climate change, politics and consumer demand in their quest for black ink, gene editing—the process of adding to, removing or changing an organism’s DNA—may help balance these demands.

Scientists continue to do their part in the fight against nasty cereal diseases. A Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) team has completed an innovative three-year study that will allow for faster recognition and identification of rust and Fusarium types.

It’s a lengthy and involved process to identify herbicide-resistant weeds that pose a steadily growing threat to farm fields. With almost $500,000 in funding provided by Results Driven Agriculture Research, a project is now underway at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Lethbridge Research and Development Centre to simplify the procedure with the creation of rapid tests.

Nieuwenhuis describes the by-product feeds market as opaque. FeedXchange gives farmers, the ability to see what others are paying and to view historical price trends that can significantly influence purchase decisions and allows them to manage expenses.

As the agricultural landscape undergoes a significant shift, Olds College of Agriculture & Technology stays attuned to the industry’s emerging needs and trends such as the critical challenge posed by the current labour shortage. We perceive this challenge as an opportunity to sculpt the future of agriculture through progressive education and state-of-the-art technology.

Each year, crop diseases diminish yields in Western Canada and around the globe. To address such perennial threats, Australian company BioScout created its signature product, an agricultural disease detection, spore identification and quantification system. Its purpose is to help farmers manage crop disease by identifying spores prior to the appearance of symptoms on the plants. BioScout has launched active pilot projects around the world to test the unit’s ability to detect diseases in crops such as fruits, vegetables, oilseeds, legumes and cereals.