Demonstration site brings field-scale testing to research

Expansion to 330 acres from the original 100-acre parcel, purchased from the Ontario government in 2020, has allowed Glacier FarmMedia to build the research-focused Discovery Farm Woodstock.

With numerous partnerships finalized and research plots and trial studies underway, the 2023 edition of Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show was the first opportunity for Discovery Farm Woodstock leaders to show their progress to the public.

Why it matters: Demonstration research allows companies to test innovations in real-world settings and farmers to see and products before they hit the market.

Two opportunities for an “Off the Beaten Path Demonstration Research Tour” were offered during each of the 2023 show’s three days, Sept. 12-14. The tractor-and-wagon-powered tour visited five research plots and featured highlights from three additional research partnerships.

The discovery farm allows GFM to roll in pre-existing outdoor farm show partnerships, including Grober Nutrition’s young cattle feeding work, underway since 2009 in a barn on the Woodstock site.

It also opened opportunities to collaborate with other businesses and organizations in crop-related, side-by-side trials.

Among presenters during the Off the Beaten Path tours was Grain Farmers of Ontario, Tilbury-based Maizex Seeds, France-based Timac Agro, London-based A&L Laboratories, and U.S.-based AgroLiquid.

The tour began with a synopsis by Alex Dacey of GFO about that organization’s involvement, including through a plot at Discovery Farm Woodstock, in the Great Lakes Yield Enhancement Network (YEN).

Dacey said there are YENs around the world that target a variety of crops. The three-year-old Great Lakes YEN focuses on wheat and includes approximately 100 registered growers in Ontario and approximately 80 in the Great Lakes region of the United States.

Created through a partnership between GFO and the Michigan wheat growers, it was modelled after a YEN in the United Kingdom that focuses on cereal crops and potatoes.

For a fee of $250 per field, participating growers submit a series of soil, plant tissue and crop samples for testing, along with yield data. With more than 250 data points available from each field, says Dacey, benchmarking and YEN-wide comparisons provide information about what goes into high-yield wheat.

“Ultimately, we want to close the gap between potential yield and actual yield,” he said.

At the Maizex plot, Chuck Belanger said the Woodstock farm is part of a network of eight trial sites in Ontario and several more in Quebec and Manitoba for corn and soybean genetics.

“In the last 10 years, (Maizex) has really invested heavily in our agronomy research, and we were happy to be involved with the discovery farm,” said Belanger.

Timac Agro, which launched Canadian operations in 2019 to market biostimulants, enhanced fertilizers, nitrogen stabilizers and other crop health products, has plots on the farm show property that track the effectiveness of the inputs.

Being part of the Woodstock Discovery Farm, said company representative Chris Pertschy, “gives (Timac Agro) another forefront to project our products and practices to some of the most innovative producers in Canada.”

A portion of the acreage fronting on the 11th Line west of the main farm show property is dedicated to a study entitled “100 Bushel Soybeans: What’s holding us back” led by University of Guelph Master’s student Matt Rundle. With support from a range of academic and crop sector stakeholders, the study tracks the physiology and yield variation of soybeans under a variety of agronomic practices.

Southwest of the Rundle plot is the Field of Excellence where numerous industry partners are testing products and practices with an aim “to improve profitability of marginal areas of the field.”

“What we intended on doing when we first got involved with this project was showcasing the soil health index that A&L Canada has,” said national sales manager Wayne Black.

This year’s participation in the project has achieved that. Applying the 487 different parameters possible within the index confirmed the shortage of phosphorus and potassium – “too low for growing a productive soybean crop,” Black noted. But a more significant limiting factor was boron.

He said the effort showed the value of examining a complete soil analysis rather than just P and K, and how to improve micronutrient levels to make nutrient use more efficient.