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Recently, we had the opportunity to talk to husband and wife farmers Paul and Lori Kinnee of Ten Bar Cattle in Grand Prairie Alberta. Paul and Lori have a commercial Simmental herd are newly approved OFCAF funding recipients. The Kinnee’s applied and were approved for funding of their projects in all three OFCAF BMP areas — rotational grazing, nitrogen management, and cover cropping.

Edmonton, Alberta — Almost half of Canada’s honeybee colonies did not survive the winter of 2021, the most significant loss of honeybees in 20 years. Bees are vital to our world and economy, with the security of our food supply depending on pollinators. That is why there is a definite buzz about RDAR funding an Alberta beekeeper project to fight the Varroa destructor mite (Varroa), a deadly parasite infecting bees and destroying bee colonies. 

RDAR opened the On-Farm Climate Action Fund (OFCAF) program to application in early August. On November 7th, 2022 OFCAF closed applications for the 2022 year one intake season. OFCAF will begin accepting applications for year two of the program starting on February, 13 2O23. On October 27th 2022, RDAR had the opportunity to host two federal Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)Program Managers on a full day tour of producer farms in and around the Central Alberta region that have started to implement OFCAF BMPs on their properties.

Contamination of surface water and groundwater from nutrient loading is a critical problem within agriculture and urban areas across Alberta and Canada. Outcomes from this project aim to provide producers with an additional low cost, low maintenance, efficient, sustainable tool to protect the water, soil, and air through the remediation of contaminated feedlot runoff waters that can then be safely used for irrigation and potentially for livestock drinking water”.

In our August blog, we talked about how the On-Farm Climate Action Fund (OFCAF) is helping producers fight climate change. The OFCAF program provides financial support to producers to accelerate the adoption and implementation of on-farm Beneficial Management Practices (BMPs) to lower Greenhouse Gas emissions. A maximum of $75,000 is available to producers looking to implement BMPs, like the one we’re highlighting today, on their farm. This past week, RDAR had the opportunity to visit a cow/calf operation in Parkland County, just West of Edmonton, where pasture pipelines, a BMP covered under OFCAF, were being installed on-farm. Installing pasture pipelines involves burying polyethylene (PE) pipes roughly 12-14 inches below the soil surface to provide cattle with fresh water at strategic locations within your managed grazing system.

Mike Hittinger is a cattle producer and Board Chair for Gateway Research Organization (GRO). He and his wife Melissa have run a cow/calf operation east of Clyde, Alberta for 18 years. Mike applied to the On-Farm Climate Action Fund (OFCAF) to help enhance his farm’s grazing system. He plans to make their pastures more resilient to climate change — better able to handle excess moisture and weather droughts. We had the opportunity to connect with Mike to talk about his experience with OFCAF and how this program may be able to help other producers transition into new farming ideas.

Researchers in the University of Lethbridge’s Southern Alberta Genome Science Centre and its bioinformatics core are collaborating with scientists at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada to find viable solutions to mitigate Bovine Respiratory Disease — the most prominent feedlot cattle disease in North America — that is responsible for an estimated financial burden of $3 billion annually.

Edmonton, Alberta — Currently, the best way to find out whether or not a potato is good to go to market is basic and old-fashioned – cut it open and look to see if there are defects. The process is time-consuming and destructive, taking good potatoes off the production line for random testing. A new research project at Lethbridge College aims to use cutting-edge near-infrared (NIR) hyperspectral imaging technology to test potato quality more quickly in a way that doesn’t destroy good product.

Edmonton, Alberta – RDAR and Genome Alberta, with the Government of Canada and Alberta Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Economic Development, today announced $5.1 million in funding through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP) for agriculture genomics projects. This investment is leveraged 2.5 times with other non-government funding for a total investment of $12.1 million.

Edmonton, Alberta – Traditionally, potato producers use the late fall – a time when their other crops require less attention – to prep their potato beds for the following spring. The long-established process has its benefits, but also creates concerns, including loss of soil fertility, crop nutrient availability and an increase in greenhouse gas emissions.