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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.caain.jpeg

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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. 

    • 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.

    • Build a network of experts to provide leading edge training and learning opportunities for producers, agronomists, technology developers and students.

    • Identify and curate linkages and collaborations among “living labs” that will accelerate the development and adoption of technologies and practices.

    • 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.
  • 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.

  • 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.

Current Projects

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Comparisons of In-Field MicroClimate Variability & External Weather Stations

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BioScout - Identify & Quantify Disease Spores

The network is evaluating the functionality, connectivity and value of data collected from a common suite of sensors measuring soil, climate and crop conditions in six regions across four provinces. For Dr. Joy Agnew, Vice-President of 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.”

Data Collected by the METOS Wireless Sensors

Field Monitoring

Weather Monitoring and Forecasting

Water Management

Disease Modelling

Insect Monitoring

Nutrition Management

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.

Pan-Canadian Smart Farm Network 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

    Land: 

    3,600 acres - crops & forage production
    Field Scale & Plot scale

    Pastureland

    Wetlands

    Native/prairie lands

    Livestock:

    Beef herds
    Commercial breeding females (150)
    Purebred Red Angus heifers (15)

    Breeding ewes (150)


    Technology & Equipment:

    Expertise & Leadership:

    • Agricultural Engineering

    • Animal Science & Welfare

    • Crop Production

    • Data Science & Agronomy

    • Instrumentation

    • Land & Water Reclamation

    • Livestock - Genetics, Reproduction, Nutrition, Production, Management

    • Machine Automation

    • Plant Science & Entomology

    • Precision/Digital Agriculture

    • Project & Ag Business Management
    • Rangeland Health

    • Remote Sensing Technology

    • Soil Science

    • Technology Development

    • Telematics & GIS/GPS

     

    Additonal Assets

    • Smart Ag Innovation Centre

    • Field Crop Development Centre (FCDC) - plant research/breeding

    • Technology Access Centre for Livestock Production & labs

    • Beef & Livestock Centre - calving, lambing, artificial insemination, animal processing
    • 1,000-head capacity feedlot

    • National Meat Training Centre
    • Farm Shop & equipment

    • Brewery

    • Greenhouses

    • Soils, Plants & Chemistry labs

    • Incubator space

    • Equine & Rodeo Centre

    • Conference Services

    • Continuing Education Services

    Olds College Smart Farm

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    Location: Langham, Saskatchewan

    RM of Corman Park Section 15
    Northwest of Langham, Saskatchewan

    15-39-8 W3M

    610 acres

    Land: 

    Field of Excellence: 180-acre flax & wheat split 

    Water Management Project including network of surface ditches

    Crops & forage production

    Brown soil zone

    Network:

    Glacier FarmMedia

    • largest agriculture media company in Canada

    • extensive farmer network through publications, events & market listings

    Publications

    • Alberta Farmer

    • Manitoba Co-Operator

    • Le Bulletin

    • Farmtario

    • Grainews

    • Country Guide

    • Canadian Cattlemen

    • The Western Producer

    Research, weather & markets

    • Discovery Farm

    • METOS Canada

    • Glacier MarketsFarm

    Tradeshows & conferences

    • Ag in Motion

    • Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show

    • Farm Forum Event

    • Advancing Women in Agriculture

    Ag Marketplace & listings

    • Ag Dealer

    • Farmzilla

    • Prairie Ag Catalogue

    Technology & Equipment:

    Agriculture equipment

    • Vaderstad 980 air cart

    • CLAAS 780 TT combine

    • Trimble TMX-2050 monitor

    • Shore Model 920 moisture tester

    • Grain cart

    • Brillion forage seeder

    • High clearance sprayer

    Cropping equipment - field & plot scale

    Variable rate prescription MAPS report

    METOS hardware

    Connectivity - Wireless/5G network/LoRaWan

    Expertise & Leadership:

    • Knowledge Transfer Initiatives

    • Crop Production

    • Data Science & Agronomy

    • Land & Water Reclamation

    • 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 demonstration

    Student-focused clinics

     

    Visit Discovery Farm Website

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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

    Visit Discovery Farm Website

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    Location: Grosse Isle, Manitoba

    • 5,500 acres near Grosse Isle, MB of commercial grain & pedigree seed farm growing soybeans, canola, spring & winter wheat, oats, peas, barley, corn & camelina

    • 100 acres dedicated to third party testing & validating new hardware/software technologies

    Land: 

    • 5,500 acres of highly calcareous lacustrine clayey black chernozemic soil with fine to medium texture comprising mostly of soils from the Marquette and Red River Soils series with agricultural capability of 2-3W

    • 80 acres tile drained

    Technology & Equipment:

    • Fleet of current John Deere equipment with GPS, VRA & mapping capabilities including 10 years of yield mapping records & satellite imagery

    • Variety of sensor providers including Pessl/METOS weather stations, soil moisture probes, pheromone traps & GoPro cameras

    • Additional drone, multispectral cameras & GoPros arriving soon

    Expertise & Leadership:

    • Supporting start-ups & connecting agri-food entrepreneurs

    • Research Facilitation

    • Precision/Digital Agriculture

    • Data Literacy Training Programs

    • Telematics & GIS/GPS

    • Remote Sensing Technology

    • Machine Learning

    • Soil Science

    • Crop Production

    • Data Science & Agronomy

    • Plant Science & Entomology

    • Provincial Water Management Strategy

    • Sustainable & Regenerative Agriculture

    • Advancing skills & knowledge 

    Additonal Assets

    • +100 grain storage bins for product monitoring with plans for in-bin sensor projects

    • Access to farm & shop equipment

    • Seed cleaning plant

     

    EMILI - Enterprise Machine Intelligence & Learning Initiative

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    Location:  Vermilion, Alberta

    Additional sites:

    Lacombe, AB (pulse research)

    Edmonton

    Producer fields

    Land: 

    3,000 acres - crops & forage production
    Field scale & Plot scale

    Pastureland

    Wetlands

    Access to native & prairie lands

    Livestock:

    Beef herds
    Commercial Angus (90 cows)
    Purebred Angus (40 cows)
    Research (80 cows crossbred Angus)

    Dairy herd (280 head Holsteins)

    Bison herd (200 cows)

    Horses      

     

    Technology & Equipment:

    • Livestock equipment 

      • Three beef handling systems

      • Monitoring with Growsafe, Growsafe-Beef, GreenFeed, SmartFeed Pro, etc.

    • Livestock tracking devices

    • Soil, moisture, nutrient sensors

    • Drones & multispectral cameras

    • GPS systems & mapping

    • Autonomous Agriculture Equipment

      • Robotic & conventional milking systems (dairy)

      • Lely Vector automatic feeding system (dairy)

      • Auto steer on certain tractors

    • Cropping equipment - field & plot scale
    • Weather stations

    • Optical Spot Spraying equipment
    • Agriculture Technology Centre

    • Connectivity - Wireless/LoRaWan

    • Crops & livestock databases

    Expertise & Leadership:

    • Agronomy

    • Ag Business & Financial Management

    • Ag Marketing & Sales

    • Animal Health & Welfare

    • Crops & Livestock Equipment & Technologies

    • Crop Nutrient, Fertility Management (4R), Production & Management

    • Integrated Crop Management

    • Livestock - Genetics, Reproduction, Nutrition, Feeding, Production, Management

    • Plant Science

    • Precision/Digital Agriculture

    • Rangeland Health

    • Regenerative & Sustainable Agriculture
    • Remote Sensing Technology

    • Robotics & Automation

    • Soil Science

    • Telematics & GIS/GPS

    • Weeds, Insects & Diseases

     

    Additonal Assets

    • Student-Managed Farm - Powered by New Holland

    • Dairy Learning Centre

    • G.N. Sweet Livestock Research Centre - 300 head capacity for feed intake, feed efficiency, related research

    • Animal Health Clinic

    • Equine & Rodeo Centre

    • Bioenergy & Crop Research Building

    • Farm Shop & equipment

    • Calving Barn

    • Artificial Insemination Centre
    • Soils, Plants & Chemistry labs

    • Wet Lab

    • Conference Services

    • Continuing Education Services

    Learn more about Lakeland College

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    Location: Lethbridge, Alta.

    Land: 

    385 irrigated acres divided into field & small-scale plots for crop production

    Wetland/upland management area

    Livestock:

    Fish; primarily tilapia

    Technology & Equipment:

    • Above & in-ground irrigation systems including: 3 pivots, 2 laterals & 15 acres of sub-surface drip
    • Microwave radiometers
    • Neutron probes
    • Soil moisture sensors
    • Drones
    • Weather stations
    • Eddy covariance system
    • Grain storage bins
    • Grain moisture, temperature & CO2 monitoring
    • Grain management system
    • Low temperature in-bin drying
    • High temperature grain dryer
    • NIR hyperspectral imaging
    • High Pressure Liquid Chromatograph (HPLC)
    • Protein analyzer
    • Freeze dryer
    • Walk-in coolers & variety of freezers
    • Environment/humidity chamber
    • Centrifuge
    • Mills, ovens & dryers
    • Water quality testing equipment
    • Greenhouse climate control systems
    • Aerobic bioreactor technology
    • Biochar technology
    • Unique greenhouse lighting system

    Expertise & Leadership:

    • Precision irrigation
    • On-farm water use efficiencies
    • Adoption of new irrigation technology & tools
    • Soil moisture & nutrient dynamics
    • Irrigation engineering
    • Agrometeorology
    • Soil nutrient dynamics
    • Greenhouse gas emissions
    • Remote sensing & spatial analysis
    • Data analytics & forecasting
    • Physical & conceptual modeling of plant-soil-water continuum
    • Agricultural engineering
    • Post-harvest technology
    • Improving storability of Alberta’s crops
    • Minimizing post-harvest losses
    • Food processing
    • Mathematical modeling
    • Machine vision
    • Mechatronics
    • Artificial intelligence
    • Integrated food production systems
    • Sustainable food production
    • Aquaculture
    • Aquaponics
    • Greenhouse management, operations & control systems
    • Greenhouse crop productivity enhancement
    • Greenhouse technology & automation
    • Bioprocess design & development
    • Bioprocessed nutrient application technology
    • Effluent & feedstock management

     

    Additonal Assets

    • Farm shop & equipment
    • On-farm Irrigation Demonstration Canal
    • On-farm Grain Drying Research Facility
    • On-campus irrigation & soil testing labs
    • On-campus post-harvest labs
    • On-campus analytical labs
    • Integrated Agriculture Technology Centre (IATC)
    • Centre for Sustainable Food Production (10,000 sq. ft. research greenhouse)
    • Aquaculture Centre of Excellence
    • Spatial Technologies Applied Research & Training Centre (START)
    • LC Extension (corporate & continuing education services)
    • Incubator space

     

    Visit Lethbridge College

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    Location:  Brandon, Manitoba

    Additional sites:

    Brookdale Farm Station 

    Johnson Farm Station 

    First Street Pasture

    Land: 

    1,480 acres - perennial forage & annual crop production
    Replicated paddocks average 10 acres
    Marginal & high agricultural capability landbase

    Perennial pasture

    Wetlands

    Native Aspen Parkland Prairie

    Livestock:

    Beef herds
    Commercial angus cow-calf (150 cows)
    Replacement heifers (25)
    Bulls (7)

    Technology & Equipment:

    • Field scale annual cropping equipment - Auto steer on certain tractors
    • Field scale hay production equipment 
    • Livestock handling systems (x3) - Livestock Manager & EID Tag Reader, batt latches, solar-powered fencing cart
    • Weather stations
    • Farm station wide connectivity - WiFi/LoRaWan
    • Livestock monitoring technology - SmartFeed Pro solar trailers, GPS collars/ear tags, Hobo pendant (fitbit), Moonsyst Smart Rumen Bolus, Onecup AI cameras, Allflex SenseHub ear tags, water temperature & water level detection, pasture cameras  
    • Drones (RGB & multispectral) & thermal cameras
    • Soil & forage sensors - water infiltration, chlorophyll meter, canopy light sensor, soil solvita measurement reader, brix refractometers  
    • Water quality monitoring equipment 
    • Crops & livestock databases

    Expertise & Leadership:

    • Annual Forage Agronomy
    • Crops/Livestock Equipment & Technologies
    • Data Science & Statistics
    • Grazing & Grassland Management
    • Habitat Biodiversity
    • Knowledge Transfer Initiatives
    • Livestock - Cow-Calf Herd Husbandry & Production Management
    • On-Farm Demonstration
    • Precision/Digital Agriculture
    • Research Facilitation
    • Soil Health
    • Sustainable & Regenerative Agriculture

     

    Additonal Assets

    • Producer focused on-farm demonstration
    • Brookdale Farm Learning Centre 
    • Precision Ranching Data Centre
    • Farm workshop & indoor handling facilities (x2 farm stations)
    • Mobile laboratory trailer 
    • Soil & forage sampling equipment - hydraulic truck mounted & trailer mounted soil sampling, bale core samplers, forage drying ovens
    • Extensive network of academic, industry & not-for-profit conservation partnerships
    • Extension programming bridging stakeholders from the public, academia, industry, government & farm production

    Learn more about MBFI

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    Location: Clavet, Saskatchewan

    Additional sites:

    Lanigan, Sask.

    Goodale, Sask - Specialized Livestock Research Facility 

    Pathlow, Sask.

    Land: 

    15 quarters - Clavet

    12 quarters - Lanigan

    12 quarters - Goodale

    6 quarters - Pathlow

    Livestock:

    300 head cow-calf

    100 replacements

    1,250 head feedlot

    80 bison (2 herds of 40)

    Technology & Equipment:

     

    • Livestock equipment (monitoring with Growsafe, GreenFeed & Smart Paddock)

    • Livestock weighing

    • Rumen condition monitors

    • Climate monitoring/weather stations

    • Drones with multispectral cameras & lidar

    • Connectivity – wireless/LoRaWan

    • Soil moisture, temperature & salinity sensors

    • Groundwater monitoring network

    • Variable rate manure spreader

    • 24 stall indoor Metabolism Barn

     

    Expertise & Leadership:

    • Annual Forage Agronomy
    • Crops/Livestock Equipment & Technologies
    • Data Science & Statistics
    • Grazing & Grassland Management
    • Habitat Biodiversity
    • Knowledge Transfer Initiatives
    • Livestock - Cow-Calf Herd Husbandry & Production Management
    • On-Farm Demonstration
    • Precision/Digital Agriculture
    • Research Facilitation
    • Soil Health
    • Sustainable & Regenerative Agriculture

     

    Additonal Assets

    • Agricultural Engineering

    • Agroclimatic Processes

    • Data Science & Management

    • Environmental Assessment, Monitoring & Management

    • Forage, Breeding & Pasture Management

    • Instrumentation

    • Livestock Genetics, Reproduction, Genomics, Nutrition, Production, Management, Cow-Calf & Feedlot

    • Microbiome

    • Research Facilitation

    • Soil Fertility & Processes


    View the News Release

Industry Partners

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Expanding Across Canada

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.

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.

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

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, horticulture/greenhouse production, row crop production, etc.

Contact Us

Olds College Centre for Innovation
403.507.7970
occi@oldscollege.ca

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