Ever thought of an on-farm solar installation? See SFC summer issue

Jul 05, 2023

Small Farm Canada is ramping up coverage on renewable energy and the related opportunities for small farmers, homesteaders and property owners. Our summer issue includes stories on one of the biggest trends in renewable energy, the integration of on-farm photovoltaic solar power systems.

Farms.com staff expert, Garrett Vanderwyst explores the business and lifestyle opportunities that could make solar energy a fit on your property. He also discusses some of the challenges including capital investment, government regulations and the knowledge base required for operations and maintenance.

As well as Garrett Vanderwyst in this issue, contributor Justin Carrow has a review on a solar DIY book and Maintenance Man, Dan Kerr has some practical advice for off-grid living.

For more on cost savings, energy generation and off-grid living, subscribe here and get Small Farm Canada delivered straight to your door!

Source : Small Farm Canada

Video: Seeing the Whole Season: How Continuous Crop Modeling Is Changing Breeding

Plant breeding has long been shaped by snapshots. A walk through a plot. A single set of notes. A yield check at the end of the season. But crops do not grow in moments. They change every day.

In this conversation, Gary Nijak of AerialPLOT explains how continuous crop modeling is changing the way breeders see, measure, and select plants by capturing growth, stress, and recovery across the entire season, not just at isolated points in time.

Nijak breaks down why point-in-time observations can miss critical performance signals, how repeated, season-long data collection removes the human bottleneck in breeding, and what becomes possible when every plot is treated as a living data set. He also explores how continuous modeling allows breeding programs to move beyond vague descriptors and toward measurable, repeatable insights that connect directly to on-farm outcomes.

This conversation explores:

• What continuous crop modeling is and how it works

• Why traditional field observations fall short over a full growing season

• How scale and repeated measurement change breeding decisions

• What “digital twins” of plots mean for selection and performance

• Why data, not hardware, is driving the next shift in breeding innovation As data-driven breeding moves from research into real-world programs, this discussion offers a clear look at how seeing the whole season is reshaping value for breeders, seed companies, and farmers, and why this may be only the beginning.