Farming Smarter welcomes new full-time team members

Farming Smarter is expanding its team with the addition of three valuable team members.

Evrett Krippl, George Joseph Jr., and Grant Nelson are excited to continue their work with Alberta’s largest agriculture innovation hub beyond the terms of summer contracts.

With these new contracts, the three Field Technicians will take on more responsibility in the field this summer to see that project operations for each team are successfully completed.

Evrett Krippl

Evrett is a Field Technician with Farming Smarter’s Commercial Innovation program under the tutelage of  Trevor Deering.

The Commercial Innovation team delivers unbiased, third-party research services to agri-businesses. Their primary specialty is testing products for registration, variety suitability, pest management, and much more. 

Evrett will be leading the execution of the Commercial Innovation team's 90 small-plot research trials for 22 clients this year to deliver exceptional results. He enjoys the varied and challenging work of agriculture research.

“I really like working, in general, with Farming Smarter because of all the cool stuff you get to learn. I’ve always been into trying to learn new things and figure out new things, so being able to work in research – I’m just excited by all the stuff I get to learn,” says Evrett.

During the early months of his new contract, Evrett has been preparing to become a Certified Crop Advisor. He will be taking his final exam to achieve this goal before the 2026 growing season kicks off.

Evrett previously completed two contract terms as a Seasonal Crop Research Technician at Farming Smarter. He assisted with spring field prep, two busy summers of crop agronomy research, and helped with processing the season's data in the winter.

He graduated from the University of Lethbridge with a degree in geography, mainly focusing on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) studies.

Before coming to Farming Smarter, Evrett worked as a research assistant at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, as well as an independent research company.

George Joseph Jr.

George is a Field Technician under Farming Smarter’s Field Tested program, working alongside team lead Lewis Baarda.

The Field Tested programs works with producers, processors, businesses, and growers' groups to ensure new practices and technologies are scalable and usable at the farm level. Baarda's team provides on-farm research to farms in southern Alberta to prove value, streamline productivity, and develop new opportunities within the value-added irrigated specialty crop industries including potatoes, fresh peas, sweet corn, and many more crops.

George is a dependable all-arounder who also enjoys learning as much as he can about each operation. While he mainly assists Baarda with planning and executing their on-farm field trials, George is quick to jump in and help Farming Smarter’s other teams with their work.

His passion for farming and learning go hand-in-hand at Farming Smarter; he loves being able to take on a variety of tasks, and that no two days are identical.

“If I want to work outside, I get to do field work in the summer. I like to work on the data side, and I have an opportunity to work on the data side. If I’d like to learn something new, I have an option for that,” says George. “I feel like Farming Smarter is a place where you get to learn and do the kinds of work you like the most.”

George worked two summers at Farming Smarter while completing his diploma in Agronomy from Lethbridge Polytechnic. Now that he has graduated, he is eager to jump into his career and learn as much about the farming world that he can.

Like Evrett, he is set to become a Certified Crop Advisor before the growing season kicks off.

Grant Nelson

At just 20 years old, Grant has already completed four summer terms and has now been hired full-time as a Field Operations Technician at Farming Smarter.

Grant started working for Farming Smarter as a seasonal youth employee, spending two summers here while in high school. During that time, he helped keep the shop, yard, and numerous fields well-maintained.

The next two summers after high school, Grant took on more duties for the research side of the operation and worked as an in-betweener. His knowledge of equipment saw him working alongside Field Operations Lead Carlo Van Herk to ensure equipment was available and operational for summer research teams and quick to lend a hand to whatever team needed him.

This role grew into a much-needed piece of the agronomy research puzzle at Farming Smarter as the organization expanded. 

His position as Field Operations Technician sees him and Van Herk work together to ensure Farming Smarter’s equipment are ready for use when any of our three research teams needs them. He continues to help out on research wherever he can.

“I’ve got a passion for agriculture, and this is what I love to do, so that’s where that drive comes from,” says Grant.

Grant says his favourite part of the job is hauling equipment but he also enjoys getting to meet a new crop of summer students every year.

Grant has a diploma in Agronomy from Lethbridge Polytechnic.

David Opinko

Farming Smarter also recently hired David Opinko as its new External Communications Specialist. You can learn more about him and his background here.