Farming Smarter officially kicks off 2026 research season

Farming Smarter is proud to announce the launch of its 2026 season. 

The non-profit organization, located just east of Lethbridge, offers innovative agricultural research, events and educational opportunities. 

Ken Coles, Executive Director at Farming Smarter, says a new year means taking a new approach. 

“There’s a lot of change here. There’s a lot of new people, new purpose and new restructuring as we try to meet the needs of farmers,” says Coles. 

He adds, “We’ve got a great crew, we’ve got some amazing projects and support from funders, and I’m eager to continue to get to work and help meet those innovation needs.” 

Agriculture research is at the heart of what Farming Smarter does; finding practical solutions to the problems that farmers and others in the ag sector face every day. 

That is why we offer three types of agriculture research: 

Field Tested: Farming Smarter will come to your farm to address your specific needs. We oversee key trial tasks, such as seeding, spraying, and harvesting, while ensuring quality and accountability at every step. 

Commercial Innovation: Farming Smarter offers agriculture companies unbiased, third-party results that you can trust. Companies get answers to pressing questions and testing of new products or varieties, while farmers and the public can rest easy knowing that bias does not get in the way of quality. 

Agronomy Research: This program delivers grounded and practical, unbiased, science-based and relevant knowledge from small plot research to drive innovation at the farm level. 

Farming Smarter also offers a renowned Knowledge Network, featuring videos, news publications and a biannual magazine. It also connects farmers and those in agribusinesses together through events such as Open Farm Days, Farming Smarter Field School, Farming Smarter Conference and Trade Show, and more. 

Call for Support 

The Canadian Government announced in Jan. 2026 that it would be closing seven Agriculture and Agri-food Canada (AAFC) research centres, including the facility in Lacombe County, Alberta. 

This comes despite agriculture being one of the most important industries to Canada, and particularly Alberta. 

Coles says it is more important than ever to support non-profits like Farming Smarter to ensure the agriculture industry can continue to find innovative solutions and remain competitive on a global scale. 

“I think that organizations like ours are the only obvious solution to cuts within public research. I don’t know that we have a strong enough voice that we get noticed on the national stage, but we’ve been growing and building our capacity to meet those demands, but those are pretty big shoes to fill,” says Coles. 

There are many ways in which farmers, agribusinesses and the public can support Farming Smarter, such as: 

• Sponsorship packages offer a wide range of exclusive perks, such as event passes, featured promotional opportunities and more. 

• Subscription bundles include educational opportunities and even one-on-one access to staff for personalized advice. 

• Smart Partner Program connects farmers, businesses and others while offering perks like free event registration and discounts at partnering organizations.  

• Consider making a one-time or recurring donation to ensure Farming Smarter can remain at the forefront of agricultural innovation.  

Background on Research Projects: 

Here are just a few of the new and continued projects that Farming Smarter’s research teams will be working on this year: 

Spring Wheat Management Under Reduced Irrigation – New for 2026 

Water use on farms is a critical issue Farming Smarter has been working to address. In recent years, reservoirs have been consistently below normal levels, which has put an increasing pressure on irrigated farming systems. 

The research explores the response of spring wheat when grown under reduced allocation rates of irrigation. 

“This project is aimed at measuring how much irrigation water is required to grow a wheat crop. Put another way, we intend to learn how much we can restrict water for growing wheat so that those water savings can be used to supply higher value or higher need crops on the farm,” says Lewis Baarda, Research Manager at Farming Smarter. “This will provide farmers the evidence needed to make water management decisions on a farm basis." 

Saving Soils – Entering Final Year 

This five-year initiative looks to improve soil health through four different branches of research: 

Roller Crimping Cover Crops: There are several benefits to planting cover crops (plants meant to enrich soil health rather than for harvest) such as soil building, erosion control, and weed suppression. Roller crimping involves crushing the cover crop stems without chopping them, leaving plants flattened on a surface as protective mulch. This project evaluates the feasibility of this technique under tough climate conditions and short growing seasons. 

Soil Conservation in High Disturbance Irrigated Specialty Crops: High value, irrigated root crops such as potato require intensive tillage at seeding and disturb soil at harvest. This reduces crop residue and leaves soil vulnerable to significant erosion events from the strong winds experienced in southern Alberta.  This project evaluates strategies to reduce soil erosion and improve soil health parameters in potato production. 

Fall Seeded Camelina: Farmers need an option in their crop rotation that interrupts disease and pest threats while protecting soil and trapping soil moisture. Fall-seeded camelina provides growers with that option while offering post-yield possibilities as an emerging market crop. This study evaluates the performance of camelina in dryland and irrigated fields. Growers will know the optimal seeding date to avoid winter/spring frost, the best depth to accommodate available moisture, and the seeding rate to maximize yield.  

Living Mulch: This program will target the adoption of innovative management practices that maximize biomass retention and organic matter content. Crops such as potato, sugar beet, and dry bean are harvested late in the season, have high levels of soil disturbance and leave little crop residue to protect soils from fierce Alberta winter winds. This program will develop innovative practices that enable better soil conservation and carbon sequestration while maintaining producers’ ability to compete in the global market. 

Modernizing Irrigated Crop Nutrient Response Curves – Continued Research 

In the past 20 years, farmers have seen growing yields as a result of more efficient practices along with crops and cultivars that offer higher yields becoming more accessible. However, as these opportunities to improve their economic returns have increased not all metrics have remained modern. 

Nutrient recommendations rely on soil testing that is correlated with crop yields; a new crop/cultivar will not have such data, thus the recommendation relies on outdated information. Currently, nutrient recommendations for the majority of irrigated crops grown in Alberta utilize data from previous cultivars. 

This study aims to examine the yield response to nutrients in wheat, silage corn, canola, and potatoes grown under irrigation in Alberta. This examination will allow for farmers to receive modernized nutrient recommendations, improving their economic yield and environmental impact.