Olds College Smart Farm hosted an expo and trade show that featured educational lectures and new product exhibits
An Alberta expo and trade show displaying the latest advances in agricultural technology and research attracted thousands of people to what has been described as a farm of the future.
Attendance at AgSmart totalled 2,880 people, an increase of about 40 percent compared to last year, said Patrick Machacek, vice-president of development and strategy at Olds College. “We think it’s going to have a really strong future, not just for this college, but for the ag sector as a whole.”
It was held outdoors Aug. 9-10 in tents in a field at the Olds College Smart Farm, which is a working operation that acts as a living laboratory for high-tech agriculture. The two-day event included 50 educational sessions of lectures and panel discussions ranging from virtual cattle fencing to precision agronomy.
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Besides live demonstrations of technologies such as unmanned drones and autonomous farm equipment, AgSmart also showcased 110 exhibitors. They ranged from companies such as OneCup AI, which offers precision ranching using artificial intelligence to monitor livestock, to groups such as the Grey Wooded Forage Association, which serves producers in central Alberta.
It isn’t often that busy farmers and ranchers get immediate access to a dozen different technologies or innovations “literally under one tent,” said Greg Paranich, who is the association’s agricultural field specialist.
“I know as an organization that one of the benefits of being here is being able to have a lot of the key people with research and industry that are in close proximity. And we can exchange information and get our critical questions, and then follow through with that networking benefit, which is invaluable….”
AgSmart is particularly unique because it looks at what is coming down the pipe years into the future, he said. “And so being able to track some of those and being able to talk with the researchers themselves for some of the producers is pretty valuable, especially on those (technologies) that are cutting edge and that we had to run to keep up with.”
The event was built around the notion that producers “can come to the show, take educational sessions all day, talk to exhibitors that are the latest in ag technology, go out and actually see demonstrations in the field, and basically do that for a full two days,” said Machacek.
He said many people attend the event to learn more about the college’s Smart Farm, which includes the Raven Omnipower platform for autonomous equipment.
Paranich said such technology could become widely available in less than 10 years. “The first time I saw an autonomous tractor without a cab, it was kind of like, ‘well, that’s a real game changer’ because you’re used to seeing culturally ‘here’s the image of a farmer in his field,’ and there’s just this kind of dome with wheels or tracks pulling something. And again, it’s kind of saying, ‘that was a little futuristic,’ but it’s here and it’s coming soon.”
Machacek said AgSmart attracted people from across Canada and the United States, as well as some international visitors. Although it was first launched in 2019, it was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic before resuming last year.
