Farmers are overwhelmed by too much information. That’s the opinion of Ben Hudye and just about every other farmer who tries to keep abreast of changing technology.
“There’s too much and we have no way of knowing what to believe,” Hudye says.
The Norquay, Sask., farmer and co-owner of Hudye Soil Services said it is becoming increasingly difficult for farmers to get their hands on unbiased research information. He said part of the problem stems from cutbacks in publicly funded research, while another aspect is that corporate-sponsored research may be suspect.
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“When you look at seed variety brochures, guess what? Everybody has the best varieties,” Hudye said.
“How does a farmer really know which varieties are best for his area? I guess it depends on which books you pick up.”
The concern over impartial information led Hudye to start doing his own strip trials. As well, there were more new varieties and products than he could fit into his Field of Dreams project, so he needed another way of comparing products.
“We’re constantly testing anything and everything that’s out there in terms of new technology,” he said.
“If it’s new and farmers need to learn more about it, then it either goes into our Field of Dreams or it goes into our test plots.
“We run unbiased, independent, head-to-head trials. Anyone can come out, take a look at the plots and make up their own mind about a new variety or a new seed treatment. This is a big job. Farmers can’t do all this on their own.
“Seed treatments seem to be the rave these days. We’re testing seed treatments to promote early germination, emergence and growth. Or they promote root development or disease resistance. We’ll test anything in our strip trials.”
Hudye employs four full-time agronomists who look after the test plots. He said these specialists are not sales agronomists, but agri-coaches who work for Hudye as part of the Agri-Trend network.
Hudye is also concerned that corporate-sponsored research may sometimes delete negative findings from a body of knowledge before farmers get to see the results. There is no data deletion and no cherry picking in his research plots.
“All the information, all the results, everything we learn is available to the public. If something doesn’t work as intended, it goes into the reports anyway.
“When we signed on with our industry partners, that’s something they all had to agree to. Every result from every trial goes public. We don’t just share the good stuff with farmers. We share it all. The good, the bad and the ugly.”
The main partners for 2006 are Yorkton Distributors, Monsanto, Bayer, Agri-Trend and Canterra Seeds. Hudye said the Field of Dreams and his home grown research are aimed at the technology that farmers will be using five years from now.
