Trevor Deering - Farming Smarter Feature

The story of Trevor Deering is one of a man’s passion to make the community around him better. 

Trevor is the manager of Farming Smarter’s Commercial Innovation program, which he describes as “challenging, but rewarding work.” However, this wasn’t always the path that he thought he would go down in life. 

Trevor was born in Hill Spring, Alberta, a small village about 45 kilometres northeast of Waterton Lakes National Park. The community is known for its contrasting views of rugged farm life on the prairies and the imposing Rocky Mountains a short distance away. 

“There was lots of agriculture going on around us, but I didn’t grow up on a farm.” 

Trevor says he wasn’t really interested in agriculture in the early years of his life. However, with an abundance of agriculture jobs in the area, he soon found himself working on a couple of local farms as a teenager.

For about three years after graduating from high school, he did concrete and landscaping work for the Beck brothers in Del Bonita.

Trevor had initially enrolled in the exercise science program at Lethbridge Polytechnic, then known as Lethbridge College, thinking that he wanted to help people live a healthy lifestyle. However, after just one semester, he realized that he couldn’t see a future for himself in that world.

Beyond knowing he wanted to help people and make a difference in his community, Trevor found himself adrift with no clear direction. He did some soul searching and completed personality and career aptitude tests in the hopes of finding his path. It was a conversation with Edith Olsen, who was involved with the school's agriculture program, that played the biggest role in his journey. Edith convinced Trevor to lean into his prior farming experience and take a few agriculture classes to see if he liked it.

It was an instant hit for Trevor - one project in his first semester confirmed that this was his path forward.

He wrote a paper on George Washington Carver, a man who was born into slavery, and would later become celebrated as an American hero of agricultural science. Among many other breakthroughs, he developed new techniques for crop rotation and helped to popularize the practice around the world.  

“It really struck me how he was helping farmers,” says Trevor. “If someone like that could be so influential in agriculture, maybe I can too. We have so much agriculture opportunity here that I felt like I can make a difference.” 

Trevor’s educational journey took him deeper into the world of agronomy, completing a master's degree in agriculture studies at the University of Lethbridge.

He joined Farming Smarter in 2019 as an intern on a one-year contract. Trevor would become a permanent member of the team, taking on more and more responsibilities as time went on.

Trevor says he feels passionately about his work at Farming Smarter because he makes a tangible impact in agriculture.

“They really lined up with that passion that I had for helping farmers and doing practical research that is actually going to make a difference, and I've been so grateful to be a part of that, because I think I have made a difference with a couple of the research studies I’ve been a part of,” Trevor says. 

An example of this is our study into rolling cereals, a three-year project that started in 2022. 

Farmers use land rollers to smooth field surfaces, pushing rocks down into the dirt and enhancing seed-to-soil contact. Ideally, this results in the plant gaining as much biomass as possible and increasing yields. The problem is that, depending on when you roll, you risk damaging the crop. 

He found that you can roll right up until the crop develops nodes, which are meant to improve stability. 

“We found a window for farmers to be able to roll and, hopefully, be able to plan all their other activities within that. Our recommendation was to roll between the one leaf stage up to full tillering and anything that's going to stress the crop should wait about a week before or after rolling,” he explains. 

As the leader of the Commercial Innovation team, Trevor works with companies to test products like pesticides, nutrients, biostimulants, crop varieties and agronomic practices, delivering high quality, unbiased and third-party research. 

He believes it is much more efficient and cost-effective for businesses to hire Farming Smarter to conduct research, rather than going about it on their own. 

"We have the facilities, we have the expertise, we have the people, we have the equipment, the land. We have all of that set up, so they don't have to set that up for themselves, which is a huge expense. They can just hire us to do the research they need, and then they know that they can get really high-quality data from us and the confidence to pick the best products to send to market.” 

Trevor describes himself as an outdoorsman. When he is at work, he tries to spend as much time as he can in the field. Off the clock, he loves activities like hunting, swimming, boating, hiking and camping. 

He and his wife, Davita, have been married since 2020. She is the owner of Southern Roots Hair Design in Lethbridge. 

Their son, Benjamin, is 4.5 years old, and Trevor says he loves coming to the Farming Smarter office and seeing all of the equipment. 

To learn more about Trevor and his work at Farming Smarter, get in touch with him.

Email 403-715-5558