CEO Commentary: New beginnings

Sep 27, 2024

CEO Commentary by Kelly Somerville

This fall is ushering in some big changes for me and LRIC alike. As I step into the role of CEO of this organization, I am invigorated by the tremendous work LRIC has undertaken and the excitement of projects to come.

In my previous position as Industry Services Manager, I had the opportunity to work closely with Mike McMorris, our outgoing CEO who has just retired, and am so humbled at the prospect of continuing the great work already underway.

The coming months promise to be busy as LRIC prepares to host our International Research Advisory Committee for a two- day in person event September 25-26th. The role of this committee, which includes members from across Canada and internationally, is to bring international perspectives, ideas and practices to the Ontario livestock sector. At this upcoming meeting, the committee will work on developing a strategy for maximizing value from Ontario’s world class livestock research facilities.

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Video: Seeing the Whole Season: How Continuous Crop Modeling Is Changing Breeding

Plant breeding has long been shaped by snapshots. A walk through a plot. A single set of notes. A yield check at the end of the season. But crops do not grow in moments. They change every day.

In this conversation, Gary Nijak of AerialPLOT explains how continuous crop modeling is changing the way breeders see, measure, and select plants by capturing growth, stress, and recovery across the entire season, not just at isolated points in time.

Nijak breaks down why point-in-time observations can miss critical performance signals, how repeated, season-long data collection removes the human bottleneck in breeding, and what becomes possible when every plot is treated as a living data set. He also explores how continuous modeling allows breeding programs to move beyond vague descriptors and toward measurable, repeatable insights that connect directly to on-farm outcomes.

This conversation explores:

• What continuous crop modeling is and how it works

• Why traditional field observations fall short over a full growing season

• How scale and repeated measurement change breeding decisions

• What “digital twins” of plots mean for selection and performance

• Why data, not hardware, is driving the next shift in breeding innovation As data-driven breeding moves from research into real-world programs, this discussion offers a clear look at how seeing the whole season is reshaping value for breeders, seed companies, and farmers, and why this may be only the beginning.