Researcher gets grant
University of Saskatchewan agricultural researcher Jeff Schoenau and the Saskatoon company that commercialized his technology have won a 2004 Synergy Award for Innovation from Science and Engineering Research Canada, or NSERC.
Schoenau is known worldwide for his expertise in soil fertility and plant nutrition. He developed the technology used by Western Ag Innovations Inc. to create the Plant Root Simulator, a soil testing probe and forecasting software that has been used to improve yields on 3.4 million acres of farmland in Western Canada. The invention has had an estimated economic impact of almost $60 million since 1998.
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NSERC Synergy Awards recognize successful collaboration between universities and industry. Winning researchers receive a $25,000 grant.
New CAFA sponsor
The Canadian Association of Farm Advisors has a new provincial sponsor: ACC Farmers’ Financial in Ontario. It has provided more than $1 billion dollars in low-cost operating funds to Ontario cash crop farmers through the provincial Commodity Loan Program and Agriculture Canada’s Spring Credit Advance Program and several other crop advance payment programs.
CAFA is a national, non-profit organization dedicated to helping farm businesses by increasing the skills and knowledge of advisers.
U of S research funding
The University of Saskatchewan was recently awarded $9.4 million over the next seven years for seven new Canada research chairs and associated equipment. A total of $7.1 million will go to the chairs and $2.3 million will go to research equipment to be provided by federal and provincial governments. With the addition of the new chairs, the U of S now has enough funds to support 26 chairs.
Among other things, the new chair holders will study public health, disease resistance in crops, and the effects of the sun upon Earth’s atmosphere and climate.
Pork gallery gets donation
PIC Canada, a Saskatoon-based subsidiary of Sygen International, has offered $20,000 toward the completion of the Pork Interpretive Gallery at the Prairie Swine Centre. The gallery allows visitors to view the day-to-day operation of a modern commercial piggery. The gallery depends on donations to operate and maintain its displays. The PIC Canada donation will go toward a $1 million capital campaign to pay for the construction and operation of the facility. To date, more than 100 donors including pork producers, suppliers and government agencies from across Canada and the United States, have contributed more than $975,000 to the project.
Top spud grower
Tamminga Farms Ltd. of Cranford, Alta., has earned the 2004 McCain Foods Champion Potato Grower title for Alberta. Tamminga Farms has been contracting potatoes with McCain Foods for five years.
McCain draws up a list of the top 10 potato growers in Alberta each year. Growers are judged on the processing quality of potato, size, defect level and colour.
