Smart Farm Articles

Before each planting season, farmers must make crucial decisions about what crops to plant and what seeding rates, fertilizer, and other input levels to use. These decisions are made months before crop yields and prices are known, leaving farmers exposed to unpredictable factors such as weather, pests, and socio-economic issues that impact supply and demand at harvest. ...more

Written by: Alex Melnitchouck, Ph.D., P.Ag., Chief Technology Officer, Olds College

Setting up right yield goals and forecasting yield during the growing season is the Holy Grail of precision agriculture. Both USDA and Statistics Canada, as well as some private companies, forecast grain yield during the growing period at the country scale, using remote sensing data, and they do it quite accurately....more

Finishing its second year of using autonomous agriculture equipment, the Olds College Smart Farm was able to get A LOT more comfortable with OMNiPOWER by collecting data on a total of 60 missions seeding, spraying, spreading and training across 5,408 acres in partnership with Carlson Ag, Gatez Farms Ltd. and Pattison Farms. ...more

Olds College researchers are evaluating the economic and environmental benefits of using native wetland plants and floating island technology to remediate feedlot runoff water. This research aims to effectively improve water quality for irrigation or livestock use by removing nutrients, heavy metals, and other contaminants — as well as minimizing the presence of algae blooms. Feedlot operators could access alternative, low-cost options for treating feedlot runoff water while being environmentally sustainable. ...more

By Dr. Alex Melnitchouck, Chief Technology Officer, Digital Ag, Olds College

Since its creation, the Olds College Smart Farm has tested and validated pretty much any advanced or leading edge precision ag technology that exists in the world (and this is not an exaggeration!). Digital technologies and innovative tools, which can speed up field data collection and analysis, provide detailed information about various field properties, and help making better agronomic decisions became an integrated part of Smart Farm activities at Olds College....more

By Dr. Alex Melnitchouck, Chief Technology Officer, Digital Ag, Olds College - February 2020

In the last decade, remote sensing tools became an essential component of precision agriculture. Satellite and aerial imagery is extensively used for field monitoring and crop condition assessment. The Olds College Smart Farm extensively uses remote sensing in farming operations and research....more

Smart farming is not an “easy button”, which can do everything on the farm just by pressing it. It is hard work, where agricultural specialists are empowered by various tools and technologies helping them to be more productive and efficient. Smart Farm uses many analytical tools to improve the efficiency of farming operations. Satellite and drone imagery is a good example of such tools....more

The state of a field is influenced by many variables that are interconnected and dependent on each other. In a field used for cattle grazing, these variables are even more diverse, and managing them can prove a daunting task. This is the purpose behind Olds College’s Regenerative Agriculture project: an undertaking that seeks to identify the key variables of field management to make the most out of a piece of land. ...more

The Olds College farm has historically focused its usable farmland to support the needs of the college’s livestock enterprises through hay, pasture, silage, feed grains and some cash grain. However, with the introduction of the Olds College Smart Farm a new agronomic approach is required to support the needs of students, staff, researchers and industry partners....more