Pan-Canadian Smart Farm Network
A Network of Smart Farms Improving Smart Ag Technologies
The Pan-Canadian Smart Farm Network, led by Olds College, is a network of Smart Farms committed to sharing data and expertise that will help farmers, industry and developers better understand, use and develop smart agricultural technologies.
With $1.1 M from the Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network (CAAIN), the Pan-Canadian Smart Farm Network is an $2.9M initiative, lead by the Olds College Smart Farm and includes Discovery Farm Langham located just north of Saskatoon, Sask., Lakeland College located at Vermilion, Alta., University of Saskatchewan (USask) Livestock and Forage Centre of Excellence (LFCE) located near Saskatoon, Sask., Manitoba Beef & Forage Initiatives Inc. (MBFI) located near Brandon, Man., Enterprise Machine Intelligence & Learning Initiative (EMILI) located near Winnipeg, Man.,; Lethbridge College located in Lethbridge, Alta.; and Discovery Farm Woodstock located in Southwestern Ontario.
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Our Vision
The Pan-Canadian Smart Farm Network will accelerate the development and adoption of agriculture technologies across Canada by providing a platform for knowledge transfer and dissemination of information related to utilization of technologies and data for Canadian agriculture.
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Overarching Goal
The overall goal of the Pan-Canadian Smart Farm Network is to build a collaborative framework among Canada’s Smart Farm initiatives for sharing of data and expertise to help farmers, industry and technology developers better understand, utilize, and develop smart agriculture technologies and systems.
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Key Outcome
Accelerated development and adoption of smart agriculture technologies which will help producers manage their risk of production, improving the productivity and sustainability of their farms.
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Be a national leader in the dissemination of information related to agricultural technology development, data utilization, and adoption of practices to improve productivity, sustainability and profitability of food production in Canada.
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Build a network of experts to provide leading edge training and learning opportunities for producers, agronomists, technology developers and students.
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Identify and curate linkages and collaborations among “living labs” that will accelerate the development and adoption of technologies and practices.
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Accelerate the validation of agricultural technologies and disseminate third-party, independent evaluations of agricultural innovations.
- Develop (or produce) a robust and reliable data set of sufficient size for researchers, producers, industry and technology developers to refine existing tools to make them more regionally relevant or develop novel regionally-suited tools.
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Current Projects
Soil, Crop and Climate Sensors
The first project for the network will evaluate the functionality, connectivity and value of data collected from a common suite of sensors measuring soil, climate and crop conditions at sites in three provinces. For Dr. Joy Agnew, Associate Vice-President of Applied Research at Olds College and Principal Investigator for the project, the collaboration across different agriculture zones and land bases brings more depth to the results of the evaluation, and that will benefit farmers and developers.
“Independent validation of ag technologies is critical and so is ensuring that validation is done using more than a single Smart Farm,” comments Dr. Agnew. “By joining with other partners, we’ll be providing farmers with information that will meaningfully inform their decisions about how and where to use sensor technology.”
Each project site has installed METOS Canada’s wireless sensors and devices that provide data including:
Some sites will use the data to make on-farm management decisions like timing of fungicide application, and will evaluate the benefit of using data to manage those decisions. As the project continues and additional projects are identified within the network, this page will become the information repository for the network.
Find out more about the Pan-Canadian Smart Farm Network and what's next for the “acceleration” phase.
Network Members Assets & Infrastructure
Each member of the Pan-Canadian Smart Farm Network offers specific site assets and infrastructure for future research projects and collaboration to enhance smart ag technologies. Read about the various locations, technology, expertise, equipment and more of each site within the network.
Contact Olds College Centre for Innovation to find out more about the Pan-Canadian Smart Farm Network or inquire about joining the network.
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Location: Olds, Alberta
Additional sites:
West of Carstairs, AB
West of Didsbury, AB
Lacombe, AB
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Location: Woodstock, Ontario
744906 Oxford Road 17, Woodstock, Ontario
Land:
- Located on 330 acres in the heart of southwestern Ontario’s lush farmland
- Home to Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show — Eastern Canada’s largest outdoor farm show
- Field of Excellence “Closing the Yield Gap” 15 acres of soybeans
- Row crop (corn, soybeans, grains) & forage production
- Will be working on new & emerging crops to SW Ontario
- Guelph Loam soil type
- Approximately 3,400 heat units
Network:
Glacier FarmMedia
- Largest agriculture media company in Canada
- Extensive farmer network through publications, events & market listings
- Agriculture industry connections Canada-wide
Research, weather & markets
- Discovery Farm
- Glacier MarketsFarm
Tradeshows & conferences
- Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show
- Ag in Motion
- Advancing Women in Agriculture
Great Lakes Yield Enhancement Network (YEN)
- Discovery Farm Woodstock is a partner in this initiative that is part of a global network helping farmers understand their yield potential and learn about possible limitations
Publications
- AGDealer
- AgricoleIdéal
- Alberta Farmer
- Canadian Cattlemen
- Country Guide
- Farmtario
- Farmzilla
- Grainews
- GrowPro
- Le Bulletin
- Manitoba Co-Operator
- The Prairie Ag Catalogue
- The Western Producer
Technology & Equipment:
- Working with the University of Guelph Woodstock Station Team we can complete most projects & retirements
- Partnered with a local dairy farmer & industry partners to source forage equipment
- As we grow, we will acquire more specialized equipment through our partners & by purchase
- METOS hardware coming soon
Expertise & Leadership:
Discovery Farm is the place where key players in Canadian agriculture gather to collaborate on research, demonstration and learning initiatives that focus on information that matters to Canadian farmers, then share what we learn through our extensive network.
- Crop Production
- Forage Production
- Dairy & Poultry
- Dairy Calf Research
- Data Science & Agronomy
- Knowledge Transfer Initiatives
- Plant Science & Entomology
- Precision/Digital Agriculture
- Project & Ag Business Management
- Remote Sensing Technology
- Soil Science
- Telematics & GIS/GPS
Additonal Assets
- Extensive network of industry partnerships
- Privately & publicly funded research
- In-field demonstrations
- Student-focused clinics
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Industry Partners
Expanding Across Canada
<p><span>The Pan-Canadian Smart Farm Network plans to expand into more geographic regions across Canada and work with many production systems, such as broad acre dryland crop production, irrigated crop production, livestock production, horticulture/greenhouse production, row crop production and value added processing. There will also be opportunities to link the Pan-Canadian Smart Farm Network with other Smart Farms.</span></p> <p><span>To be considered eligible to join the Smart Farm Network, a site must have the capacity to utilize and/or validate agricultural technologies and contribute to the data/information sharing and dissemination focus of the network.</span></p> <p><span>Representative(s) from the site must attend quarterly meetings, participate in network building and sharing of connections, contribute content to quarterly reports, newsletters, present at key events, and contribute to other dissemination platforms that will be shared with producers, technology developers, and the general public, all to the benefit and betterment of the entire Smart Farm Network</span></p> <p><span>In the longer-term, the Smart Farm Network will represent all geographic regions of Canadian agriculture and encompass as many production systems as possible, including broad acre dryland crop production, irrigated crop production, livestock production,&#160;</span><span>horticulture/greenhouse production, row crop production, etc.</span></p>
Contact Us
Olds College Centre for Innovation
403.507.7970
occi@oldscollege.ca
