Farming Smarter is an organization aimed at promoting innovation within the agriculture sector.
Assistant manager Jamie Puchinger said the two-day conference on Feb. 15 and 16 in Lethbridge highlighted important research in one of Alberta’s largest industries.
“We are focusing on farm management and agronomy, so giving people in the industry updates on current research projects as well as some marketing and other things related to the industry,” said Puchinger.
Trevor Deering was one of 16 presenters at this year’s conference. He has been researching fall-seeded crops that producers can incorporate into their farms.
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“We are bringing in different crops that aren’t usually growing in the area, in the fall, really in hopes that we could really improve the portfolio of crops for farmers so that they can really improve their diversity on farm with their crop rotation,” Deering said.
Farmer Ryan Mercer said learning new techniques and seeing research results helps him optimize his operation.
“There has been several topics that have been immediate takeaways to try on your farm that have proven to work and we don’t have to try everything ourselves on our farm,” Mercer said.
Mercer added another benefit is having the opportunity to see the latest strides in the industry and to push yourself to adapt.
“That desire to try new things is growing more and more each year, with a younger generation of farmers who want to look at things a little bit differently,” added Mercer.
“Looking at ways to improve their operation and diversify and looking at crop rotation and growing many different crops we didn’t say 20 years ago.”
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