The Crop Research program at Lakeland College is using the latest in agriculture technology to enhance its research operations and its ability to relate trial results to environmental conditions.

“The applications and benefits of using these new technologies in the research program are not unlike the benefits and applications western Canadian farmers are finding for these technologies at the farm-level,” explains Laurel Thompson, crop research scientist at Lakeland.

These benefits include normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) imagery to quantify crop greenness from aerial UAV photos and aerial imagery to quantify lodging area of plots, using Lakeland's UAV, a DRAGANFLY INC. X4-P. Soil sensors that measure soil moisture, soil electroconductivity and soil temperature at multiple depths in real time are also being implemented in select trials. They will better relate crop response to treatments, such as fertilizer rate and placement, to the environmental conditions present.

There are also operational advantages for using advanced technology in the research program operations. These include precision of treatment applications, reduced operator error, and increased ability for the operator to focus on the implement function for the RTK+ GPS system that Lakeland Crop Research has installed on both its seeding and spraying tractors. The RTK+ GPS system offers sub-inch repeatability that reduces trampling of plot rows during in-crop treatment applications. Thompson explains, “We have about 1.5" on either side of the tractor tires to play with as we drive over a plot during in-season spraying. With RTK+, we are able to use the GPS map we made during seeding and drive exactly down that same path a month later for spraying, with great precision.”

Lakeland was recently awarded an Agriculture Research Tools and Instruments grant from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to purchase a new specialized plot combine. This combine will include an automatic weigh system that will measure and record plot yield, grain moisture, and bushel weight in real-time, while combining. Moving forward in 2020, this will create huge operational efficiencies in the program, negating the need to manually measure these harvest data parameters by hand in the winter months.

Lakeland will continue to move forward to harness the benefits of these agriculture technologies for the benefit of farmers, students and industry.