Grainswest - Tech 2023

Tech 2023 grainswest.com 13 BY KAITLIN PACKER • PHOTOS COURTESY OF OLDS COLLEGE Smart farmweather stations record air temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, leaf wetness, solar radiation, soil temperature and soil moisture. it’s worth investing in multiple on-farm weather stations. “The precision ag philosophy is under- pinned by the assumption your condi- tions are different across the field,” “said Adrienne Levay, instructor and research- er in agriculture technology and applied research at Lakeland College.” The weather stations record air tem- perature, relative humidity, precipitation, leaf wetness, solar radiation, soil temper- ature and soil moisture. The project’s focus on wheat disease includes stripe rust and septoria complex and it compared information generated by weather stations with in-field scouting data. It also compared regional Alberta Climate Information Service weather sta- tion predictions with its own field data. First year observations determined a farmer can successfully make a disease assessment for the entire field with the use of a field-edge weather station. “How- ever, it’s only one year of data,” said Kaye. “An individual farm assessment would be really important to determine if the high- er resolution data outweighed the cost of additional weather stations, so that kind of thing will be really farm specific and disease specific.” Another important conclusion is soil temperature and moisture content can differ significantly across a given field. “It just validates why we’re trying to do precision agriculture,” said Kaye. Levay, who led the project’s statistical analysis, said the Network approach benefitted the researchers involved. “The fact we can leverage each other’s capac- ity, resources and expertise has been really awesome,” she said. The project was as much a weather station experiment as it was a way to assess collaboration between smart farms. “This early part of our work is about figuring out how to work with each other, because Canada’s ag sector is so incredibly diverse,” said Agnew. While the Smart Farm Network continues to determine its goals for the future, Agnew imagines it will eventual- ly include a large variety of smart farm facilities that cover a range of production areas. “There are just so many ways to grow food in Canada, so many technolo- gies and practices that need to be evalu- ated on the farm. The more the merrier.” Network partners now maintain approximately 10,000 acres of land be- tween them. As they bring new members into the fold the goal is to generate more data specific to various regions across Canada. “Coming together like this can, in the long run, have the impact of start- ing to augment the Canadian research and innovation system when it comes to ag tech,” said Levay. There is also opportunity to bridge the gap between the development of new technology and its application in the field. “There is benefit to companies developing this technology,” said Levay. “We can offer this farm context in which to test and validate their technologies because often they are coming from backgrounds that don’t have those agri- cultural connections.” Also, there are tangible benefits for farmers. Whereas the Smart Farm Network has the resources to carry out projects such as this weather station research, individual farmers may be leary of spending thousands of dollars to purchase multiple stations not knowing if there is a benefit. “We can provide guidance,” said Kaye. “Every new site we bring on and every connection we are able to make expands our reach and our impact,” said Agnew. “Being able to have contacts and have impact in every single area of [crop pro- duction] is incredibly exciting.”