december_web

Message from the Chair

It has been an eventful year at SARDA Ag Research. We are very proud of the applied research we continued and completed.

Some of the highlights of the year have included hosting a well-attended WheatStalk and having successful field tours despite the challenges of COVID-19. We have stayed safe and followed all regulations while accomplishing our mission to share our research with producers and industry.

In our research trials, we continued some very important partnerships and delved into areas of research that are in their infancy in Northern Alberta. For example, SARDA Ag Research continued pest monitoring with the Alberta Insect Pest Monitoring Network for the North West region of Alberta. This partnership has provided valuable information to our shareholders. We continued to conduct water quality monitoring for any chemical runoff from crops. We have been part of this program for 10 years now and remain committed to the continuation of this program. The annual report outlining the results of the monitoring is included in this newsletter.

SARDA Ag Research is currently looking at contemporary types of research that include intercropping, cover cropping and working with producers moving towards adopting the latest practices. In addition, SARDA Ag Research has been involved in hemp trials for the past 7 years in partnership with Smoky River Economic Development. As a result, local hemp producers have been able to apply our data to further experiment. Currently, we are looking to expand the industrial hemp research to focus further on the fiber market. For example, we are investigating the fiber market in order to provide research to support a decorticator plant. Such a facility separates the hemp straw and prepares the plant components for market. We have also included an article on the work we have done so far with industrial hemp in this issue of our newsletter.

This summer, we had 6 summer students working with our Research Team. They were involved with all the event planning, seeding, taking care of the test plots, collecting and entering data.

The programs on the horizon for the New Year include hemp, regenerative agriculture such as intercropping as well as cover crops, regional variety testing, continuing the success of the forage seed program, pest surveillance, water monitoring and general agronomy which includes chemical product demonstrations. I am looking forward to sharing all the progress we make in the New Year.

Sincerely, Simon Lavoie, Chair