Calgary is hosting a Canadian first later this month: a precision agriculture conference.
Many fields in Western Canada are farmed with the assistance of satellite guided farm equipment but the vast majority of the land has yet to take full advantage of the technology.
Beyond getting the machinery to follow a regular path and avoid overlapping of seed, spray or under-utilizing a wide harvest header, there are significant opportunities afforded by mapping and managing technologies, said Ken Coles of the Southern Applied Research Association, representing the sponsoring members of the Applied Agricultural Research and Extension Council of Alberta.
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Coles headed up the organizing committee of farmers, agrologists and researchers that developed Precision Ag 2.0 conference, which is scheduled for Feb. 22-23.
“We developed the program with farmers for farmers,” said Coles about the two-day event.
“This is about taking advantage of the technology to make their farms more profitable. In many cases, they have much of the basic technology already in place,” he said.
Alberta agronomist and researcher Ross Mackenzie, who is on the event’s agenda, said that while many producers have the ability to record yield maps at harvest, few actually do.
Coles and his committee looked at the long running American precision agriculture events when planning Precision 2.0.
“We modelled the Canadian conference after what farmers told us were the most useful elements,” said Coles.
Illinois agronomist Harold Reetz has been organizing farm technology meetings in the United States for decades and said producers there adopted the mapping and variable application rate systems earlier due to higher value crops and better profitability in farming.
Coles said recent improvements in the technology, lower prices for hard and software and improved commodities prices are making the move to the technology a good business decision for prairie farmers.
Several farmer-driven research groups worked to set up the event.
“It’s not one company or another showing off their consulting services or equipment. We have everyone under one roof. Farmers can hear about all of the different approaches in the break-out sessions and at the trade show,” he said.
“It’s interesting that Canada hasn’t done this before but the timing makes sense as producers are now in the best possible place to take advantage of technology,” said Coles.
For more information, visit www.precision-ag.ca.
