Innovation Farms Ontario (IFO) is doing its part to advance and de-risk agtech across Southern Ontario. A joint Demo Day by IFO and the AIVA Network recently brought out over 110 guests to see emerging agricultural technologies in action. 

In his opening remarks, Chuck Baresich (Farmer and General Manager at Haggerty Creek Ltd.) highlighted the challenges producers face today, from labour shortages to weed pressure. He emphasized that while precision agriculture has the potential to solve these issues, success is only possible if farmers are included in the conversation. 

This is why Demo Days are important. They give farmers a firsthand look at emerging tools while allowing them to share feedback to innovators. This insight is essential to ensuring that new technologies solve real, on-farm challenges. 

During the Demo Day, four Validation Projects currently being trialed with AIVA Validation Hubs were demonstrated at IFO. Here are the highlights:

Tech collaboration tackles weed pressure

Kate Baresich (Haggerty AgRobotics) demonstrated how pairing technologies creates smarter weed control. At IFO, the team used Geco Strategic Weed Management to predict where weeds would emerge first in an onion field and then programmed the OZ Robot to prioritize weeding those specific rows. 

Spray drones expand application options

Angela Fawcett (Corteva Agriscience) shared Corteva’s research on spray drones and how they create more options for farmers. Typically, IFO uses helicopters for targeted spraying, but this year helicopters were difficult to book because they were fighting wildfires in the province. Spray drones would create more options for farmers to target input applications on their fields. 

AI puts farm data to work

Neil Wagner (Farm Credit Canada) presented on how AgExpert Sustainability uses AI to analyze large amounts of complex farm data, including soil nutrients, active carbon, grain and tissue analysis, and more. AI allows AgExpert to process these datasets into tangible insights that could help farmers make more informed decisions. 

Georeferencing improves nutrient management

Kaya Moore (IFO) demonstrated the Picketa LENS. A notable feature of the LENS is that it uses georeference points to identify where in the field the tissue sample was taken – something traditional lab tests cannot do. When farming hundreds of acres of land, knowing where a tissue sample came from allows for more precise field management. 

Future events

AIVA will be attending more events across Alberta, Manitoba, and Ontario before the year is up! Learn more and register: 

• September 28: Ottawa, ON – AIVA Network at GCXpo
• November 5: Winnipeg, MB – Agriculture Enlightened
• November 18: Olds, AB – AIVA Network Demo Day at Olds College

You can also stay up-to-date on other AIVA news, trials, and events by joining the Network to subscribe to our newsletter. 

IFO is a network of farms with over 2,100 acres. AIVA proudly collaborates with IFO as a Validation Hub to validate early-stage technologies.