Field of Excellence Program | Discovery Farm Langham

The Field of Excellence powered by AgExpert is a collaborative research and demonstration program that occurs annually at Discovery Farm Langham. This popular program attracts a variety of agriculture industry partners, bringing their insights, learnings and objectives together in a single cohesive project focused on informing and engaging with Canadian farmers.

The Field of Excellence powered by AgExpert is a part of the Pan-Canadian Smart Farm Network, which is building a collaborative framework among Canada’s Smart Farm initiatives for sharing data and expertise to help farmers, industry and technology developers better understand, utilize, and develop smart agriculture technologies and systems.

There are two themes for the Field of Excellence powered by AgExpert this year, which will be sown to wheat.

The first theme is a continuation from 2023, Closing the Yield Gap – in subpar areas, how can yield be improved (and profitability) in the short term and productivity potential in the long term? We will continue to explore these questions through use of multiple data layers and tools to bring together precision agriculture, sound agronomy, and use of specialized products including novel soil amendments.

The second theme will visually show how a farmer can achieve improved yields, and other positive impacts on the crop, when following proper agronomic recommendations using lab services (grower standard practice vs. laboratory recommendations); in addition, we will demonstrate the impact of soil health on crop quality

In 2024, both themes represent a collaborative effort with the following partners:

A&L Canada Laboratories Inc.: As a Strategic Partner, A & L Laboratories Inc. helped to develop the project and define the research goals and protocols. A & L will be taking regular soil samples and using the data obtained, will direct the project with the objectives of demonstrating the impact of soil health on crop quality, providing a profitable alternative to the grower standard practice and demonstrate proper use/potential capabilities of biological practices readily available products on the market, or in the late stages of market approval.

AgExpert: The AgExpert platform is utilized throughout the season to track field operations (from seeding to spraying to harvest), showcasing the value behind digitizing records and connected data. This information provided critical information to assess the Project’s overall success.

MNP: The Field of Excellence will seek to demonstrate increase in profitability of the field over time. MNP can assist with predicting profitability with their consulting services

AGI: AGI is the Discovery Farm Langham provider of grain handling and storage equipment used in the Field of Excellence Project.

CLAAS: CLAAS of America supplied a state-of-the-art combine to bring in the harvest for the Field of Excellence Project.

SWAT MAPS: The SWAT MAPS ecosystem was utilized in several ways, including as a basis for applying prescriptive rates of seed and fertilizer to each SWAT zone.

FP Genetics: The Wheat Seed Supplier for the Field of Excellence powered by AgExpert

2024 Annual Report: Field of Excellence

INTRODUCTION

The Field of Excellence project is an annual industry-led demonstration project that is intended to demonstrate various technologies and management practices to optimize farm productivity. The goal over the last two seasons has been to “Close the Yield Gap”, with particular focus given on leveraging technologies to improve the productivity of marginal areas of the field. Wheat (AAC Hockley) was grown this year, with seed provided by FP Genetics, and seeding was completed with a Bourgault seeding system. Recognizing the variability in soil characteristics across the field, the field was split into SWAT zones, with seed and fertilizer application rates for each zone set in consultation with SWAT MAPS personnel. Weather stations and soil moisture probes were also installed in three SWAT Zones across the field (Zone 1, 5, and 8) to observed how soil moisture status varied across the field over the growing season.

RESULTS

Growing Season Conditions

Total precipitation (mm) and mean temperature (℃) are shown by month over the growing season for the last three field seasons, along with the 30-year historical mean.

Crop Yield

Wheat yield in the 2024 season was favourable overall. Early season precipitation (May and June) was much greater than in the previous two years, which benefitted early-season crop growth. Above average temperatures in July coupled with below-average precipitation likely caused yields to drop slightly below early-season expectations, as evidenced by the lowest yields recorded in the water-shedding knolls (SWAT Zone 1) of the field. In general, yields were greater on the east half of the field compared to the west half, which is consistent with previous years, and reflects a greater proportion of salt-affected soils on the west half of the field. Towards the goal of “Closing the Yield Gap”, yields across the majority of the field (SWAT Zones 2 through 8) were remarkably stable and provide support for prescription of fertilizer application rates by SWAT MAPS to promote nutrient use efficiency across the field.

Yield map of field site (left) and yield by SWAT Zone (right).

CONCLUSION

In this year, the Field of Excellence project successfully achieved stable crop yields across the majority of the field. Yields in zones of low soil moisture status (Zone 1) or impacted by salinity (Zones 9-10) suffered reduced yields, and these reductions were made worse by the above-average heat and below-average precipitation in July. A future goal emerging from this year is to continue to explore ways to improve productivity on these marginal areas of the field.

PARTNERS

Access the Discovery Farm Langham Field Reports

The Field Reports are an annual overview of all activities that happened at Discovery Farm Langham during the growing season including demonstration research, events and knowledge transfer.

VIEW REPORTS