Research Results from the Smart Farm

Olds College Centre for Innovation (OCCI) is focused on sharing results from the applied research projects we’ve been working on at the Smart Farm. We’re turning full-length research reports into bite-sized fact sheets highlighting the results and next steps of our research so producers can get the most important information in their hands.

Here are a few recent fact sheets:

Reviewing OMNiPOWER’s Second Season on the #OCSmartFarm

Finishing its second year of using autonomous ag equipment, the 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.

Thousands of layers of raw data come from the Somat-eDAQ, an electronic data acquisition device installed on OMNiPOWER in 2021, that collects data at a rate of two times a second. This translates into a short mission producing approximately 1,000 rows of data and a longer mission (three hours) producing over 49,000 rows of data.

FCDC’s First Growing Season with Olds College

The Field Crop Development Centre (FCDC) at Olds College was in full swing for the 2021 planting and growing season. FCDC breeds new varieties of malting barley, feed and forage barley, and spring and winter triticale supported by pathology, quality, and biotechnology labs.

The hot and dry growing conditions were a challenge across Alberta this year, and Lacombe was no exception. Along with the plant stress and yield decreases seen across much of the province, another unique challenge arose at FCDC — the extreme heat hit during FCDC’s crossing season at the end of June and beginning of July.

College’s Purebred Red Angus Herd =
Growing in Numbers 

Olds College staff, faculty and students recently attended the Canadian Red Round-Up Show and Sale while students also gained experience volunteering at the event. College students became further immersed in the Round-Up by practicing their bidding — Olds College Technology Access Centre for Livestock Production (TACLP) purchased two bred heifers, and instructor Leila Hickman and students in Werklund School of Agriculture Technology (WSAT) purchased two heifer calves. In addition to the heifers and calves purchased by Olds College, Bryan Mackenzie and First Class Cattle Marketing generously donated a third bred female to the College herd.