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Celebrating #CdnAgDay

February 23, 2021

Celebrating #CdnAgDay

At Olds College everything we do supports the innovative evolution of the agricultural industry. From offering full-time programming in agriculture, agriculture technology, horticulture, animal science, land and environment management, food production and trades, Olds College offers high-tech, hands-on education.

Through our innovative applied research program that includes the Olds College Smart Farm and the Field Crop Development Centre, we are laying the foundation for solving real-world problems in farming, food and land. 

“Olds College is committed to our Social Purpose: transforming agriculture for a better world,” comments Stuart Cullum, President, Olds College. “To do this we have created an environment at the College, where industry partners and agriculture producers are working with our faculty, students and researchers to address today’s challenges. Together, this community is coming up with innovative solutions to advance all aspects of agriculture so that we can increase productivity in a sustainable way.”

In the spirit of Canada’s Agriculture Day (#CdnAgDay), we have pulled some interesting stories from around campus.

At Olds College we love agriculture - it’s who we are.

  

Students help calve out Olds College Herd 

Every year during the winter term, students in their second-year of the Agriculture Management Diploma get to take turns helping with calving. Students are put into teams and added to a rotational schedule. Under the guidance of their instructors and the Olds College Farm team students partake in prenatal to postnatal care and management of the Olds College herd. So far this year, students have played an active part in the birth of over 140 calves on the Olds College Smart Farm.

See our Agriculture Management Program

Agriculture Tech Students Build Remote Ag Ecosystems

Students in the new Precision Agriculture - Techgronomy degree are working on a very interesting project called “Olds College Remote Agricultural Ecosystem” or OC-RAE for short.  The project has students building a network of sensors that they then use to monitor plant growth remotely. 

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The sensor network the students build includes:

  • A camera that takes a picture every 15 minutes
  • A soil moisture sensor
  • Relative humidity
  • Temperature
  • light intensity

All of the data is then sent to a cloud network, where students can monitor their plants remotely. Currently students are growing canola, barley, peas, and oats. We look forward to finding out the results of these student projects!

  

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Meet the newest member of the Horticulture Team, FarmBot.

Students have been receiving demos from Dr. Ken Fry of the newly acquired FarmBot. The goal is to have the robot operational in time for the horticulture courses being taught in March and April. The robot can plant seeds, water plants and remove weeds, but the big attraction is the software that comes with it. Users can drag an icon of a particular species to a grid point and the robot will know where to put the seed, what the growth habits of the plant will be so it does not weed/remove plant parts as it grows. It also features a soil moisture sensor so the robot waters only when necessary thereby saving water. A camera is attached so staff and students will be able to monitor the operation remotely and capture time-lapse images of the garden growing. Currently faculty and students are working on getting farmbot fully operational in time for the spring.

  

FCDC barley varieties top regional trials across the Prairies

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Since 1972, the Field Crop Development Centre (FCDC) has been developing enhanced cereal varieties for feed, forage, malt, food and bio-industrial uses. New varieties from FCDC including AB Hague, AB Prime and AB Tofield showed superior performance in regional variety trials across Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

  • AB Hague (listed as TR18647 in the RVTs) was the highest yielding variety in the Regional Silage Variety Trials in Alberta. AB Hague is a two-row feed and forage barley, and has shown superior drought tolerance. AB Hague also has excellent disease resistance, including moderate resistance to FHB. AB Hague will be available from FP Genetics.
  • AB Tofield was overall the highest yielding feed barley in the Regional Variety Trials in Saskatchewan. AB Tofield is a smooth awned 6-row feed and forage barley with stable yield. AB Tofield will be available from SeCan.

  • AB Prime (listed as TR18645 in the RVTs) was the highest yielding barley in the Regional Variety Trials in Manitoba. AB Prime is a two row feed barley. AB Prime will be available from SeedNet.

  

#OldsCollege Community Stories

Olds College staff, students, and alumni are proud to play a part in Canadian Agriculture! Follow Olds College Social Media for

stories from our community!

 

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