Automated Farming Workshops

EDMONTON - Feb 12/10 - SNS -- Alberta's agriculture department is funding a series of workshops aimed at helping farmers make better use on onboard technology on their field machinery.

In the past year 2,729 farmers in Alberta bought precision farming equipment for GPS information collection, GPS guidance (i.e. autosteer, lightbars, software), manual and variable rate controllers for variable fertilizer application.

The provincial agriculture department worries that despite these technology purchases, "there continues to be very little implementation of the technology beyond auto-steering. This is much more potential for precision agriculture including record keeping (mapping) as part of an integrated crop management plan and variable rate technology (VRT) for more efficient application of fertilizer and herbicides," it said in a press statement.

In an initiative funded by Growing Forward and Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development, ARECA, it's Associations and industry partners are offering workshops on GPS, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing and VRT with case studies to demonstrate implementation of these technologies.

The workshops will be held at the Sawridge Inn in Peace River on March 3; Coronation Lions Recreation Center on March 12; or Lethbridge Agriculture Center on March 23.

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