The Northeast Agricultural Research Foundation (NARF) has extended their commitment to evaluating the use of precision farming technology for on farm research. They have hired Glenda Leach as their research and development manager. With the addition of this position they expect to be able to get better quality results from more on-farm projects.
Glenda grew up on a family farm by Star City. She remains involved in the farm, which produces both grain and livestock. She has her Diploma in Agriculture from the U of S. She comes to NARF with 9 years of experience doing contract work for researchers at Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada's Melfort Research Station. The time that she has spent managing plots and working with data entry is good preparation for organizing the projects NARF wants to run. Ducks Unlimited Canada and NARF have been able to put together a full time position for Glenda. She will spend about half of her time doing extension for Ducks Unlimited and the other half working with NARF projects and extension. NARF was able to access funds for her salary through the Canada Saskatchewan Agri-Food Innovation Agreement.
Glenda started her position at the end of June. She was involved in organizing some of the on-farm projects, which were run after that. Six different farmers ran projects this last season. They included a number of comparison strips and 1 variable rate project. The farmers evaluate and record the results with their GPS yield monitors and yield maps. Comparisons involved such things as variety trials, varying fertility rates on a number of crops, fungicide trials on canola and cereals, a seeding rate trial on CPS wheat, and others. NARF also has the use of 150 acres of Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada land to develope the use of precision farming technology. This past season it was seeded to canola and included a herbicide tolerant variety trial and varying fertility rates. NARF was able to get GPS located yield data off the site this year. They also had 7 acres of fall seeded canola on the site.
In the next few years Glenda also foresees working with farmers to apply precision farming techniques at various levels depending on the financial commitment they are comfortable with. Data from soil types and soil sampling, topography, and remote imagery could be layered together to give enough information to begin doing some precision farming. She is confident that when grain prices provide a better return the benefits of applying precision farming will be more evident to all.