A DOT (now OmniPower) autonomous unit at work on the Olds College Smart Farm. (Olds College video screengrab via YouTube)

Smart farm competition encourages farmers to adopt technology

Competition will serve as opportunity to create and develop smart farm networks

The Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network (CAAIN) is seeking applications for a competition geared toward creating or developing new smart farm networks. Funding under this initiative will support collaborative on-farm tech innovations in hopes encouraging farmers to adopt emergent agriculture technology. CAAIN receives funding from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada to address challenges […] Read more


Farmers Edge’ made its initial public offering in March of 2021. The event included a congratulatory note from TMX Group, owner of the TSX. (Farmers Edge video screengrab)

Farmers Edge considering privatization

The tech firm is evaluating a pennies on the dollar share buyback from its majority holder

Fewer than three years after going public, Manitoba-based tech firm Farmers Edge is considering a privatization proposal.

(LakelandCollege.ca)

Alberta’s Lakeland to offer ag tech degree

College to launch first-in-Canada program in September

East-central Alberta’s Lakeland College is set to offer what’s billed as Canada’s first degree program in agriculture technology, as a two-year post-credential program, starting in September. The program, announced Wednesday, will consist of full-time studies at Lakeland’s campus at Vermilion, about 180 km east of Edmonton, plus “experiential learning practicums” off campus, en route to […] Read more

Variable-rate application is more prominent in Ontario than Western Canada due to more use of custom operators in Ontario.

Economics around variable-rate fertilizer challenging

The reasons variable-rate application has had lower adoption is a lesson for new ag technologies

There are good financial reasons that variable-rate application of nutrients hasn’t taken off like automated guidance. Guidance systems for farm equipment ensure complete coverage without overlap, University of Guelph Professor Alfons Weersink told the 2020 FarmSmart Conference recently at the university. That means savings of $8 per acre for planting. That’s enough to make it […] Read more


Precision irrigation requires good soil moisture and weather information.

Agriculture technology aimed at many farm levels

Large technology companies aren’t just targeting North American farms with innovations

Agriculture technology and solutions are increasingly driven by the need to solve problems in poorer and less-food-secure areas of the world. Companies developing technology are keeping both traditional farms and developing farms in mind because it is the socially responsible thing to do and because both are serious business markets. Why it matters: A focus […] Read more

Editorial: Farm group management changing quickly

It’s a time of generational change in Ontario’s major farm organizations, with significant retirements of long-time stabilizing influences and the hiring of new leaders of a different generation. Neil Currie, for 19 years general manager of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA), and Dave Stewart, executive director of Beef Farmers of Ontario (BFO), where he’d […] Read more