The man widely viewed as the father of minimum tillage and modern soil conservation practices has died.
Don Rennie, a longtime professor of soil science at the University of Saskatchewan, died in Saskatoon Dec. 23. He was 85.
“Don was instrumental in identifying the damaging effects summerfallow had on our soil quality,” said Blair McClinton, executive manager of the Saskatchewan Soil Conservation Association.
“Some of the research he did, going as far back as the 1950s and on through the 1980s, really forced changes in the way we farm.”
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Born in Medicine Hat, Alta., and raised on the family farm at Gull Lake, Sask., Rennie served in the air force in the Second World War, then earned a PhD in soil science and joined the faculty of the University of Saskatchewan in 1952.
He was head of the soils science department from 1964 to 1980 and director of the Saskatchewan Institute of Pedology and dean of agriculture from 1984 until his retirement in 1989.
He was also active in international agricultural projects and organizations during his career at the university and in his retirement.
A member of the Saskatchewan Agricultural Hall of Fame since 1983, Rennie received numerous awards for his work domestically and abroad, including the Order of Canada in 1992.
During his career, he did research in a number of areas, including summerfallow and tillage practices, soil deterioration, salinity, nitrogen transformation and movement in soils and dust accumulation in soils in the vicinity of potash refineries.
Rennie’s criticisms of summerfallow and the damaging effects of tillage were controversial and at one point in the early 1970s he was called before a special meeting of the Saskatchewan Institute of Agrologists to explain and defend his views.
However, his data were convincing and eventually other researchers in Canada and around the world confirmed his results.
McClinton said Rennie was the most influential soil scientist of his day.
“Many of the research scientists who developed zero tillage and new seeding systems were heavily influenced by Rennie and his work,” he said.
