Gardiner Dam plans to double Sask. irrigation stalls

Nov 09, 2022

The Gardiner Dam has been reshaping Saskatchewan waterways — and lives and livelihoods — since it opened in 1967.

But a 10-year plan to use the dam and Lake Diefenbaker to more than double the province’s irrigation capacity is now more than two years behind schedule, and is just getting off the starting block.

This fall, the dam has opened a new head office, making it easier for workers from the province’s Water Security Agency to monitor the dam, get training and do regular maintenance and repairs.

Speaking at the new office, Minister Responsible for the Water Security Agency Jeremy Cockrill said the $6 million upgrade was badly needed.

“Drinking water for roughly 60 per cent of Saskatchewan’s population comes through this dam,” he said. “It’s very important. We have a number of staff that work here each and every day. So what this office investment does is it really gives a better working space for the people and equipment that work for the Water Security Agency, keeping the Gardiner Dam running.”

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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.