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Winnipeg Free Press
16-07-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
Boosting agriculture production innovation
GROSSE ISLE — The sensors are ready; potatoes will soon be tracked. At least, they will in a storage facility on a MacGregor farm. The operation — J.P. Wiebe Ltd. — is the latest to join a growing network of research farms across Canada. 'We're not printing arable land,' Graeme Millen, a vice-president at Farm Credit Canada, said Tuesday. 'If you want to get more out of the land we have, it's singularly going to be through innovation.' MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Jacqueline Keena, Managing Director, EMILI, during the event Tuesday. EMILI and Farm Credit Canada announce the expansion of the Innovation Farms network during an event at EMILI's Innovation Farms at 70127, Rd 1E, Grosse Isle, Tuesday morning. Reporter: Gabrielle Piche 250715 - Tuesday, July 15, 2025. Farm Credit Canada, a federal Crown corporation, tabbed $2 billion for agriculture and food innovation earlier this year. Committing six-figures annually to research at J.P. Wiebe Ltd. is part of the fund, Millen said. Farm Credit Canada doesn't divulge specific funding, a spokesperson added. However, a four-year funding agreement for J.P. Wiebe is in place. Millen has noticed increased demand globally for Canadian food as recent trade wars unfurl. (Overall, exports to countries aside from the United States jumped 5.7 per cent month-to-month in May, hitting a new record.) Even without current geopolitical tensions, Canada is among the world's top food exporters. Agriculture and agri-food exports account for roughly seven per cent of the national gross domestic product. 'We always have to have a lens to how Canadian agricultural production stacks up … compared to our international counterparts,' Millen said. Hence the 2024 creation of Farm Credit Canada Capital, the Crown corporation's investment division. It funnelled more than $170 million into agriculture and food technology companies in its first year, Millen relayed. Farm Credit Canada has been inking deals with research farms for the past four or five years. J.P. Wiebe Ltd. marks the second farm site in Manitoba and, at minimum, the sixth in the country. 'We just see this as an incredible pathway to driving the adoption of innovative technology and practices across Canadian farms,' Millen said. 'We want to keep pushing boundaries together to drive the competitiveness globally.' Already, projects are underway at J.P. Wiebe. The 6,000-acre farm seeds 2,600 acres of potatoes annually and rotates its crop. OpticAg, an artificial intelligence-powered startup, is developing its software — which combines different softwares tracking farm performance — and is gathering data from J.P. Wiebe. Cellar Insight will monitor potatoes in storage through its in-development hardware. Its sensors use air flow and humidity, temperature and carbon dioxide tracking to detect potato rot and depletion. SUPPLIED Workers install a sign at Innovation Farms's newest expansion in MacGregor, Man. The expansion covers J.P. Wiebe Ltd., a potato farm. Traditionally, farmers use visuals and smell to scout potato loss. 'The challenge, we feel, is … how can you detect it earlier than you smell it? Because obviously it's (already) started,' said Terry Sydoryk, Cellar Insight's chief executive. J.P. Wiebe Ltd. marks Cellar Insight's first venture into Manitoba. The startup is working with roughly 30 farms in Alberta and New Brunswick; it aims to grow to the United States. Research farms like J.P. Wiebe Ltd. are 'critical,' Sydoryk said. '(We) have to respect the fact that you can't upset that (farming) cycle in a fashion that you might in other industries,' he added. 'It's basically a livelihood that's being invested, and ultimately, that needs to be protected.' Producers need to see startup offerings in action and businesses benefit from testing their wares on farms, explained Jacqueline Keena, managing director of Enterprise Machine Intelligence Learning Initiative (EMILI). EMILI will oversee research at J.P. Wiebe Ltd. The potato operation is the second under EMILI's Innovation Farms umbrella. Rutherford Farms, a 5,500-acre company in Grosse Isle, is the first. The latter farm seeds dryland crops — wheat, canola, oats. Planting such crops on J.P. Wiebe's irrigated land is an experiment opportunity moving forward, Keena said. '(It's) relevant as you think about climate change and increased heat and moisture variability,' she added. A nearby Grosse Isle canola field has lost most of its flowers this July due to lack of rain. It's 'not an excellent' sign for harvest, Keena noted. Wildfire smoke has affected companies at Innovation Farms by disturbing drone and satellite images used in algorithms. One business has changed its algorithm to rely less on satellite footage, Keena said. 'All of these environmental variabilities that make growing crops more variable are reasons why we need to test different sorts of technology,' she said. For example, testing crops that are more drought-resistant in August or seed varieties that'll germinate in spring could be helpful. EMILI launched Innovation Farms in 2022. Upwards of 50 projects have covered the Grosse Isle operation since, including weed prediction and grain tracking. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. Sheldon Wiebe, owner of J.P. Wiebe Ltd., was out of the country and unavailable Tuesday. Millen from Farm Credit Canada said he had initial discussions with Wiebe about the partnership last year. 'When I heard about what EMILI was doing, testing and validating technology at Innovation Farms, I knew it was something I wanted to contribute to,' Wiebe wrote in a statement. Farm Credit Canada is working to better co-ordinate data and findings between its partner research farms in Manitoba, Ontario and Alberta, Millen added. Gabrielle PichéReporter Gabrielle Piché reports on business for the Free Press. She interned at the Free Press and worked for its sister outlet, Canstar Community News, before entering the business beat in 2021. Read more about Gabrielle. Every piece of reporting Gabrielle produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Winnipeg Free Press
05-07-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
Digital agriculture languishing in Canadian fields
Opinion Frustration oozes out of the opening lines of a report highlighting the current state of adoption for digital agriculture in Canada. 'Digital agriculture offers powerful tools to address Canada's pressing agricultural challenges, but the current approach isn't delivering results,' says the analysis compiled by Manitoba-based EMILI and the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute. 'Despite the potential to increase yields by 20 per cent, while reducing environmental impact, Canada captures just three per cent of global agtech venture capital investment compared to 55 per cent in the United States.' SUPPLIED A drone-mapping tech demonstration takes place at Innovation Farms, the Manitoba field space EMILI uses for testing new ag technology. If the trend continues, the report forecasts fewer Canadian agtech companies and fewer innovations to support Canadian farmers, which places the sector at a competitive disadvantage relative to more 'digitally advanced nations.' EMILI (Enterprise Machine Intelligence Learning Initiative), an industry-led body that works with farmers, industry, investors and innovators to promote the development of digital tools for agriculture. So from its perspective, any pace of adoption is too slow. But if you overlay the issues holding it back and the future challenges Canadian agriculture faces in productivity, competitiveness, profitability, generational transfer, labour and sustainability — to name a few — it's hard to argue with the report's conclusion. In short, while farmers have widely embraced technology such as GPS guidance systems, which have shown to reduce fuel costs by as much as 15 per cent and increased yields by upwards of 10 per cent, they have been slow to fully embrace this expanding suite of technologies. It's not because they are stodgy old stick-in-the-muds like they are sometimes portrayed, but because the results so far can't consistently align with the promises. That hesitancy in turn puts a chill on investment as startups working in the innovation space struggle to scale up to commercial release and enter a marketplace where uptake is anything but certain. Just as with the adoption of no-till farming two generations ago, farmers moving into this space aren't just buying different field equipment, they must change how they think about farming to achieve the benefits. It's how they apply what is described as the 'broad ecosystem' of software, robotics and AI-driven insights to their on-farm management that unlocks the potential. 'These tools don't just boost yields. They save time, reduce stress and strengthen farmers' control over their operations. Recognizing this full scope is key to unlocking its full potential across all farm types,' the report says. However, on the farm, potential doesn't pay the bills. If it doesn't rain or it's too cold, hot or wet, the return on investment on a new technology evaporates, even if it works as promised, which isn't always the case. Plus, there are significant barriers to adoption, not the least of which is poor connectivity. More than one-fifth of rural Canadians still lack access to high-speed internet and 90 per cent of Canada's farmers live in underserved areas. Data ownership and control are another problem. Farmers are repeatedly assured they retain ownership of their data, but control over how it is used is a grey area underscored by lengthy consent forms that seemingly require a legal degree to decipher. Farmers are careful about how much intel about their operations they share, as it can affect relationships with suppliers, buyers and competitors. Information is power. Wednesdays A weekly dispatch from the head of the Free Press newsroom. Another issue is interoperability; the different technologies and platforms in the marketplace today don't always talk to each other — making it hard for farmers to harvest the benefits of an integrated system. On top of all that, the policy approach within Canada has been fragmented and short-sighted. 'Canada's mix of federal and provincial programs is not sufficient to drive a digital revolution in Canadian agriculture,' the report says. It calls for digital agriculture to become the focus of Canada's next five-year plan for agriculture when it is negotiated by federal, provincial and territorial ministers. That plan must include an enabling regulatory environment, investment in programs and partnerships, as well as extension support for farmers. Or Canada will fall even further behind. Laura Rance is executive editor, production content lead for Glacier FarmMedia. She can be reached at lrance@ Laura RanceColumnist Laura Rance is editorial director at Farm Business Communications. Read full biography Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
