Alberta is one of Canada’s major grain-producing provinces. It is home to large plains of cropland with fields typically 160ac in size and an average farm managing 3,000ac.
The scale is massive, but it is facing a lot of the same problems that we face here in Ireland. A lack of young people getting into farming, changes in weather patterns and the global grain markets are affecting farmers, no matter what scale they operate at.
It is also oil country, sitting on vast petroleum reserves and visitors will often see oil pumpjacks in fields when driving across the state.
Farmers do not own these pumpjacks nor the oil beneath the surface and mostly have no power on whether a pumpjack will be set up on their land or not.
However, they are paid relatively well for the lease of the small piece of land the pumpjack sits on. Despite the oil reserves and a large domestic fertiliser industry, farmers there still felt the same spike in input costs that hit Irish tillage farms hard in 2022, 2023 and this year.
Regulations are not as strict either. There are no limits to fertiliser use.
Some farmers will decide on how much to apply based upon soil tests, previous yields, soil type, and the level of organic matter in the soil, but many will put out the same amount every year. The nitrogen use efficiency of crops is much lower than in Ireland.
Alberta’s short growing season constrains what crops can be grown. Spring barley, wheat, canola, peas and maize for silage make up the bulk of the crops. Faba beans are beginning to become common too.
It’s a bit too far north for corn and soybeans, being at the same latitude as Ireland.
The windows for sowing and harvesting are tightening even further too. Drought is becoming an issue and back in April, the ground was bone dry in a matter of days after the last of the snow melted.
A storm then came through the area and the soil could be seen blowing away before farmers’ eyes. The farmers are doing everything they can, with no-till systems and straw chopping dominating, but they still cannot stop drought from ruining their crops nor the wind from eroding their soil.
Some farmers in Alberta are rapidly moving towards precision agriculture. This is helped by the scale they are operating at. There are other advantages in Alberta too.
They experience over 50% more sunshine than Ireland does, which means they have much better satellite imagery to use.
Olds College, an agricultural college in the centre of Alberta and host of the World Ploughing Championships in 1986 and 2013, is helping farmers to make the move to precision farming.
The college works directly with grain farmers across the province and has been developing tools and training programmes aimed at improving how farmers make decisions.
The emphasis is firmly on data; recording what you do, measuring what happens and using that information to make better decisions.
The college places a large emphasis on technology when teaching the next generation of farmers and agri-professionals.
There is both a precision agriculture diploma and digital agriculture degree, but all students are exposed to technology. It is treated as a core farming skill, not an optional extra to be able to use new technologies.
Canada has a well-developed crop insurance programme and most grain farmers there carry some form of cover as a matter of course.
The provincial and federal governments cover the administrative cost of the insurance and a portion of the premium for each farmer, with the farmer covering the remainder of the insurance premium.
The policies are usually comprehensive, covering hail, drought, excess moisture, disease, lodging, wildlife damage and even situations where snow arrives before a crop can be harvested. Hail and wildlife damage cover can be purchased on their own too.
The existence of functioning crop insurance changes how farmers think about investment. If a significant portion of your risk is covered, you can make bolder decisions on inputs, variety choice and new practices as a portion of your revenue is secured – no matter what the season brings.