KAP brought forward some key resolutions to the Canadian Federation of Agriculture AGM this week

Mar 01, 2024

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture wrapped up its AGM yesterday.

Members passed 53 resolutions that will outline the groups focus in the coming year.

This year’s resolutions cover a range of issues, including: conservation, climate change, labour, rural infrastructure, crop protection, international trade, risk management and much more.

Three resolutions brought forward by the Keystone Agricultural Producers passed.

One resolution called on the CFA to lobby the Pest Management Regulatory Agency to amend regulations to allow for more flexibility for research in using drones for pesticide applications.

KAP'S vice president Jake Ayre says there are only a few select products that are currently approved by the PMRA to be sprayed by a drone.

"A lack of data currently exists that prevents the further advancement of pesticide applications using drones. The current regulatory environment makes it a challenge to advance drone research in an expidited manner and various amendments to the PCP (Pest Control Product) Regulations would assist in advancing drone research. So the ask here is just even to get the research done we need to see regulations changed."

Other KAP resolutions that passed called on the CFA to lobby the Government of Canada to incentivize the use of renewable diesel as an alternative fuel source for agriculture.

And for the CFA to lobby the Canadian Grain Commission to work with producers and grain companies to improve clarity and fairness within the grain contracts.

KAP'S vice president Jake Ayre says in the last few years there's been a massive focus on grain contracts with the recent droughts.

He pointed out there's been a lot of things in the contracts that are unclear for farmers.

Source : Pembinavalley online

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.