News and updates

Farming Smarter Director Ryan Mercer and Executive Director Ken Coles in conversation about the role of the organization in southern Alberta farming.

Are you itching to try a novel crop in your rotations? Maybe a little something to boost profits in these turbulent markets?

While Farming Smarter doesn't have definitive answers from year two of its study, Research Manager Mike Gretzinger can offer some insights from the 2019 season.

Farming Smarter found another way to bring you information you can use on your farm! Check out our new podcast series.

Mercer Seeds brought in Farming Smarter this past season to provide an unbiased and scientifically rigorous examination of ATP Nutrition PreCede and ReLeaf products on spring wheat; which is a seed dressing & a foliar nutritional product.

That's our new mission statement in Farming Smarter's new 5-year strategic plan. Hang on! I heard that groan; saw that eye drift onto something, anything else.

Biobeds offer a safe way to dispose of pesticide rinsate on a farm. It can be easy to overlook the potential effects of disposing of pesticide rinsate but this is where the great benefits of a biobed come into practice.

Farming Smarter's three-year hail recovery research project suggests that insurance is the most reliable way to protect from crops loss due to hail damage.

Farming Smarter started into a three-year project led by SARDA this past spring to see if deep banding some nutrients might make a difference to crop health.

Despite the relatively dry weather we've received in Southern Alberta this season, hail is still a prevalent occurrence.

Landowners or land managers that use Beneficial Management Practices (BMPs) to protect riparian zones around water bodies can count on better water quality within the water body...

There are literally hordes of unpaid workers in your field. They are the quiet, unheralded beneficial insects that work tirelessly to control crop insect pests for you. If it wasn't for them, we would have poorer crops to harvest in the fall.

Farming Smarter employees got their hands dirty with their most recent foray into the world of soil as they began preparing for the Deep Banding of Immobile Nutrients project.

Since at least 1988, application of the Right nutrient source or product at the Right rate, Right time and in the Right place has been closely associated with agricultural sustainability.

Field scale research can offer big benefits when done effectively, but it can also be time consuming, require specific tools and demand attention at challenging times in the season. Also, sometimes it's hard to do research in isolation because you can't compare your results with anyone.

Farming Smarter has some new exciting projects such as the publicly funded Deep Banding of Immobile Nutrients with SARDA. The project objective is to find whether placing nutrients once every three years at 5 to 6 inches will provide better results than current practice of shallow placed nutrients at annual seeding.

Farming Smarter Conference & Trade Show 2017 had a whole new feel to it. Participants had elbow room, networking spaces close to the action or away from the crowd and the Trade Show stood on its own as a place to linger and learn.

Cam de Wolf spent Tuesday setting up the Monosem seeder to plant canola. He and Toby Mandel moved the seed row units to 20 inch spacing.