4R practices and technology showcased at Innovation Farms

Aug 08, 2024

On August 1, 2024, EMILI welcomed over 120 attendees to Innovation Farms powered by AgExpert for Manitoba 4R Day to learn about the benefits of 4R nutrient practices and the role of digital agriculture in enhancing sustainability across the prairies. This marked EMILI’s second year hosting this event in collaboration with Fertilizer Canada.

Throughout the day, participants engaged in a series of dynamic presentations and demonstrations led by industry leaders, offering valuable insights and practical knowledge on advancing agricultural sustainability.

The day started with opening remarks from Dustin Pike, on behalf of Fertilizer Canada. He emphasized the importance of 4R training and how the efficient use of fertilizers can enhance farmers’ returns.

Field presentations highlight 4R practices and technologies
EMILI’s Innovation Farms Manager Leanne Koroscil and Sarah Boychuk from FCC AgExpert discussed the integration of technology and data to improve 4R stewardship. Their presentation highlighted various digital agriculture technologies, including weather stations from METOS, Ukko Agro, and Arable and their ability to track environmental conditions in the field.

In a collaborative presentation, Steve Barron from Double Diamond Farm Supply, Chris Manchur from the Canola Council of Canada, and Marla Riekman and Mitchell Timmerman from Manitoba Agriculture explored advancements in 4R nutrition and enhanced efficiency fertilizers. They discussed both current practices and future developments.

Dave Ives and T.J. Instance of Enns Brothers, along with John Breker from Agvise Laboratories, provided insights on zone management and soil fertility. Their discussion focused on tools and practices that support effective 4R Nutrient Stewardship.

Kory Van Damme from Fortified Agronomy and Jack Carels from Double Diamond Farm Supply addressed the challenges and opportunities of precision agriculture in 4R management, including the basics of field mapping.

Over lunch, attendees had the chance to connect with representatives from Nutrien, Koch, Taurus, Yara, ATP Nutrition, A&L Labs, FCC AgExpert, Farmer’s Edge, and Fertilizer Canada at our Innovation Farmers Market.

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Video: From Students to Solutions | On The Brink: Season 2, Episode 14

Ask Canada’s most decorated soybean breeder his favourite part of the job and he doesn’t name a single variety. He names the students.

Istvan Rajcan is a professor of soybean breeding and genetics in the Department of Plant Agriculture at the University of Guelph, where he has run the soybean breeding program for 28 and a half years. In that time he has developed 87 soybean cultivars, published 140 refereed papers and trained 51 graduate students. In 2025 he received the Public Sector Impact Award from the National Association for Plant Breeding.

He is also worried. In this episode he says Canada is at a crossroads, pointing to recent government cuts to plant breeding programs and to the facilities that support them. His prescription is structural. "Plant breeding funding formula has to be a long-term one," he says.

The formula he is defending is the public-private matching arrangement his program runs on. Private seed companies fund the work, provincial or federal money matches it, and the combined pool stretches each dollar further than either source could alone. At the National Association for Plant Breeding annual meeting in June, he says American public breeders were often surprised at how well that collaboration works in Canada.

He also describes how the people entering plant breeding have changed. His early graduate students came mostly from farms. More recently they include, in his words, "city kids who just became excited about genetics."

Topics covered:

Why public-private plant breeding funding in Canada needs a long-term

commitment rather than a larger one

How matching private seed company investment with provincial and federal

dollars multiplies research capacity

How the graduate student pipeline into plant breeding has shifted from

farm kids to city kids