News and updates

Harvest time is a busy time of the year. It is hustle and bustle to get everything done on time. In the rushed panic, safety may not be on everyone's mind. To help keep everyone safe during harvest, here are tips for harvest safety.

The custom research unit, led by research associate Trevor Deering, does research for private companies on crop protection and management products and techniques.

You can't get away from the sawfly, but you can keep the damage they do to a minimum.

Soil is one of the most important components involved in growing crops, yet soil biology is not well understood, and the physical characteristics have not been monitored. Now there is a study that is hoping to fix that.

Farming Smarter instituted some organizational restructuring that could help them grow in size, quality and impact. Ken Coles, Executive Director of Farming Smarter, says restructuring the organization into smaller business units will help it meet some goals.

The project was made with the idea to find out what the effects of rolling at different stages of crop growth to see what stage of the crop would be recommended best for rolling barley.

While the differences haven't been earth shattering, so far a three-year southern Alberta study looking at the effect of different treatments on wheat shows the combination of using a fungicide and timing of irrigation might have a slight benefit in reducing fusarium head blight (FHB).

Pollinator project aimed to develop a long term, comprehensive, cost-effective and sustainable seed mix to conserve natural insect pollinators and enhance local biodiversity in southern Alberta.

Farming Smarter, in collaboration with Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Sciences, University of Alberta, wants to show there is a strong opportunity to get on land earlier without it a negative effect on the crops.

Canola growers will want to follow Farming Smarter's research into effective ways to combat flea beetles on canola without the use of neonic pesticides.

The Canadian Agricultural Partnership and Lethbridge College fund the biostimulant project still in its first year. The project tests the different capabilities of various biostimulants to see if they provide benefits to farmers who want to use them.

The Deep Banding Immobile Nutrients project is more than two-thirds of the way through and we have some preliminary observations.

For spraying, there are a few ways to get the best out of your application. The first tip is to use the biggest droplet size.

This project evaluates the use of an EM38 soil conductivity sensor as a real-time soil moisture mapping tool.

Farming Smarter begins testing a new product, Sporenado, to find if it's effective at of trapping fungal spores as an early warning system for crop protection.

Field Tested's on-farm research program for 2020 is underway.  The program, now starting its third season, provides a research service that helps to evaluate products, practices and technologies in a field setting.

A unique project looking at training dogs to detect clubroot.

The Regional Silage Trials results show how varieties of barley, oat, triticale and pulse mixtures grew in southern Alberta last year and which ones grew best.

New Way provided two side-by-sides for use around the fields. These vehicles are 4-seater units equipped with dump beds.

Farming Smarter continues its hemp research in 2020 by planting with a precision planter for the second year in a three year trial.

This trial is a 4-year fully phased rotational trial (each year has each part of the rotation sequence) looking at the effect of cover crops on viability, yield and soil health.

The use of manure is as old as agriculture itself and was an integral part of farming prior to the arrival of chemical fertilizers. However, in recent years,manure is often discussed as a problem, or a waste for disposal. Should it be?

Farming Smarter wants individual farms across Alberta to build a pesticide rinsate biobed system. To facilitate this initiative, it built a mobile biobed on a trailer this winter to guide producers interested in assembling one on their farm.

The earliest active cutworm species on the prairies is the early cutworm (Euxoa tristicula). It is a native species that had an outbreak in beet fields near Taber (around 1970 if I recall properly).