Olds (Rural Roots Canada) – Producers looking to get the best return from their precision agriculture equipment may want to keep an eye on research underway at Olds College Centre for Innovation.
The SmartAg Applied Research team has partnered with Alberta Grains on the On-Farm Precision Experimentation (OFPE) program, a project designed to help farmers identify the most economical seeding and nitrogen fertilizer rates for wheat and barley under real-world growing conditions.
Project Lead Daniel Stefner says the research makes use of equipment producers already own.
“So what we’re doing is we’re making use of farmers’ existing precision ag equipment, so their seeders, potentially their sprayers and their combines, to be able to conduct on-farm research in a very simplified and efficient fashion,” says Stefner.
Instead of traditional strip trials, the project uses precision agriculture technology to vary seeding and fertilizer rates across fields every 300 to 400 feet. That creates hundreds of replicated treatment areas, providing statistically robust data while allowing producers to continue their normal field operations with minimal disruption.
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The research uses the free Data-Intensive Farm Management Program (DIFM.farm) platform, led by Dr. David Bullock from the University of Illinois, to develop prescription maps, collect seeding and harvest data, and analyze results.
Stefner says the focus is not simply on producing the highest-yielding crop.
“So of course there’s a lot of research, which is great research, that pushes for, you know, the highest yield. In this case, it’s looking at the most economical yield from your input prices standpoint.”
The goal is to identify the economic optimum for seed and nitrogen inputs on individual farms, giving producers data they can use to make more informed management decisions and improve profitability.
The project is now in its third year and includes 25 trials across Alberta and five in Saskatchewan. Researchers are planning to expand the program next season to include 25 Alberta trials and 10 Saskatchewan trials.
The research is supported by RDAR, Alberta Grains, Sask Wheat and Sask Barley, with participating producers receiving an honorarium if they meet the project’s equipment requirements.
Farmers interested in participating can register here.
