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Wednesday, February 11

Time

Presenter

Title/Topic

8:00 am

Breakfast

Sponsored by

8:30 am 

Keynote - Ashley Nicholls, Reach Ag

If Agriculture Feeds the World, Who Feeds Agriculture?

9:30 am

Presentation 1 - Dr. Thierry Fonville, Farming Smarter

Take Cover - Blanket the Soil!

10:00 am 

Trade Show Break

Coffee & Snacks sponsored by

10:30 am

Presentation 2 - Mike Gretzinger, Farming Smarter

It's About Time We Updated Our Fertilizer Recommendations

11:00 am

Presentation 3 - Curtis DeGooijer, Bourgault Industries

Placement Matters: Nitrogen's Influence on Phosphorus Uptake

11:30 am

Presentation 4 - Nolan Johnson, University of Alberta

Evaluating Nitrogen Efficiency in the Prairies

12:00 pm

Lunch

1:05 pm

4-H Presentations

4-H Energy

1:30 pm

Presentation 5 - Ken Coles, Farming Smarter

Fueling Farm Innovation

2:15 pm

Presentation 6 - Michael McGee, Bioenterprise Canada

Uniting the Agricultural Innovation Ecosystem

2:45 pm

Trade Show Break

Coffee & Snacks sponsored by

3:15 pm

Presentation 7 - Lewis Baarda, Farming Smarter

An Overstayed Welcome: The Kochia Dilemma

4:15 pm

Presentation 8 - Dr. Brian Beres, Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada

Life of Brian: Decades of Advancing Wheat Research
Sponsored by

4:45 pm

Orville Yankee Award

Sandman Signature Lethbridge Lodge

320 Scenic Dr. S
Lethbridge, AB
T1J 4B4
1-403-328-1123

View Venue Website

If Agriculture Feeds the World, Who Feeds Agriculture?

This discussion takes a candid look at who is showing up to work in ag today, how employee demographics are shifting, and where traditional thinking has an opportunity to meet modern reality. Dig into the real opportunity in front of the industry: casting a wider net, leading with culture instead of criticism, and remembering that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. The goal? Get boots on the ground and create the kind of workplaces that keep them there.

Originally from a small farming community in New South Wales, Australia, Ashley Nicholls now resides in Foothills County, AB. Although he wasn't raised in an agricultural family, Ashley had the opportunity to work alongside several mixed farming operations, sparking a deep appreciation for the industry.

As the founder of REACH Agriculture Strategies, Ashley is a passionate advocate for Canadian agriculture. He is dedicated to strengthening workplace cultures, improving staff retention and enhancing hiring practices across the sector. Through a progressive approach to leadership and a focus on effective communication, REACH delivers customized programs that help producers not only get boots on the ground but keep them there - ensuring the long-term sustainability of operations and the industry as a whole.

Life of Brian: Decades of Advancing Wheat Research

Dr. Brian Beres takes us on a journey through his career, from his unconventional path to becoming a scientist through his three decades of leading wheat research in southern Alberta. Dr. Beres was a prominent figure in Prairie-wide wheat stem sawfly research, led the winter wheat programs for the region, built an agronomic systems-based approach for wheat, and most recently driving projects focused on Ultra Early Seeding. He's eager to share a lifetime of achievement and knowledge with you at the Farming Smarter Conference!

Dr. Beres is a senior research scientist at AAFC - Lethbridge and Adjunct Professor at the University of Alberta. In this role, he introduced the Genotype x Environment x Management (GxExM) framework to Canadian agriculture, reinforcing a systems agronomy approach to shape how cropping systems are designed and optimized under climate variability. His impact on academia and industry has been recognized on several occasions including the Alberta Seed Growers Honorary Life Award; Fellow and Distinguished Agronomist - Canadian Society of Agronomy; Canadian Journal of Plant Science (CJPS) Best Paper (2013 and 2025); and CJPS Outstanding Associate Editor.

Dr. Beres has been the author or co-author of 131 peer-reviewed research articles, 2 edited books and 3 book chapters. He served as Editor-In-Chief for the Canadian Journal of Plant Science and is a Consulting Editor for Canadian Science Publishing. Dr. Beres has several international collaborations and represented Canada on the Research Committee of the Wheat Initiative, where he also developed and was the inaugural Chair of an Expert Working Group for global agronomy wheat research.

Dr. Brian Beres,
Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada

Placement Matters: Nitrogen's Influence on Phosphorus Uptake

Nitrogen is typically the most applied fertilizer on the prairies. How does placement affect the safety of canola, along with phosphorus uptake in general? Bourgault has been conducting field scale trials for over a decade and will provide insight into these topics.

Curtis works as the Agronomy Manager at Bourgault Industries based in St. Brieux, Saskatchewan. He manages the Bourgault 2000-acre research farm and organizes the field scale, replicated fertilizer placement trials.

Uniting the Agricultural Innovation Ecosystem

With the sponsorship of AAFC, FCC, Bennett Jones and the CFA, Bioenterprise Canada brought together agri-food ecosystem partners to develop and host a series of seven round tables across Canada, designed to enhance the understanding of opportunities and challenges in the agri-food ecosystem from a regional, provincial and national perspective. Their A National Call to Action report was published in early 2025 and was followed up with a series of six podcast episodes with Shaun Haney, the first of which Unlocking Innovation, Ep 1: A national call to action - RealAgriculture, was recorded in October, 2025. Michael will discuss findings and recommendations from their analysis which notably included the lack of farmer engagement in Canada’s innovation ecosystem, from agricultural research through to innovation development, the piloting of solutions, and ultimately their commercialization and adoption.

Michael has over thirty-five years of investment experience including eight years as General Partner with a private-equity fund focused exclusively on Agriculture and Food. More recently, Michael spent five years as Director of Innovation before joining the Board of Directors of Bioenterprise Canada, a not-for-profit providing mentorship, strategic services and non-dilutive funding to companies in Canada’s Food & Agri-Tech sector.

Michael is also a Board member of Calgary based Verdex Capital whose mission is to advance Canadian agriculture by investing in sector innovation through Carrot Ventures, AgriFund and select limited partnerships.

Originally from Quebec and now in Calgary for twenty-nine years, Michael is an avid hiker, enjoys walking his dogs and remains active in various community endeavors.    

Michael McGee,
Bioenterprise Canada

Evaluating Nitrogen Efficiency in the Prairies

Nolan joins us to share results from two studies evaluating the effects of nitrification inhibitors across the Canadian Prairies to help farmers optimize their operation for efficient application. He will share how these products affect barley product under various reduced rates of urea, and the efficacy of nitrification inhibitors on soil ammonium and nitrate to overcome the challenge of asynchrony between soil nitrogen availability and crop demand.

Nolan Johnson grew up near Wainwright, AB on a generational cattle ranch, so farming has always been a part of his life! He completed his Bachelor’s degree at the University of Alberta in 2022, majoring in Crop Science. After graduation, he began work as a research technician at the UofA for a year and a half before beginning his Master of Science program in September 2024 with Dr. Linda Gorim.

An Overstayed Welcome: The Kochia Dilemma

Kochia continues to be a major threat to production on the prairies. The weed is prolific, well adapted to life on the prairies, and is showing up on more and more Alberta farms. Farming Smarter has been at the forefront of practical research for combating the kochia threat for a number of years now. Lewis will discuss some of Farming Smarter's new work on kochia management including strategies for kochia in saline areas, herbicide screening, and a prairie-wide collaborative initiative focused on kochia in pulse crops.

Lewis Baarda is the On-Farm Research authority at Farming Smarter. Lewis uses his Master's degree in geography from the University of Lethbridge and experience with spatial analysis and multivariate statistics to conduct field scale research on farms. If you have questions about variable rate technology, soil sensors, on-farm research, field-scale trials, soil and yield variability, GIS, agricultural data, big data, field mapping, remote sensing, or other agricultural technologies, Lewis is the person to contact.

Lewis Baarda,
Farming Smarter

It's About Time We Updated Our Fertilizer Recommendations

If you look around in public you’ll see a generation of young people dressed almost like our grandparents, but with modern fabrics, and listening to vinyl, but on new headphones. What’s old is new again, but with a modern twist. 30 years ago OP canola varieties yielded 20 bu/ac, while the average for today's hybrids is over 40 bu/ac. Add advances in equipment technology, 4R nutrient stewardship and all the logistical considerations of modern farming and we want to know if the old fertilizer recommendations still hold up. For the last 30 years, we’ve based nutrient recommendations on soil test results, crop removal rates and yield targets, but haven’t really updated the system to reflect modern conditions. We’ve taken a first step at evaluating fertilizer response by recreating response curves for wheat, canola, corn and potatoes with the most common varieties and modern farming practices. We aim to see what the numbers tell us!

Mike Gretzinger leads the Agronomy Research team by coordinating the agronomy trials at Farming Smarter as well as collaborations with external groups such as AAFC, InnoTech Alberta, Lethbridge Polytechnic, SARDA Ag Research, the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Manitoba, and others. He is the branch between the academic and practical, and oversees trial management as well as quality standards for the data collection, protocols, seeding, spraying, pictures, and harvest for the small plots for research and field events. 

Mike enjoys that his role is ever evolving and growing along with his skills, knowledge and the organization. He's glad to have the fortune to mix his academic and scientific skills with the day-to-day needs of agriculture research.

Take Cover - Blanket the Soil!

Thierry will share exciting updates on the latest developments in the Saving Soils project as we head into our final year. He’ll spotlight the biggest lessons learned in the past four years, like how to successfully manage cover crops from fall through spring, how cash crops can thrive alongside cover cropping, and how these practices impact soil health. Thierry will also highlight key components of the project to help you get the most out of your cover crops.

Dr. Thierry Fonville is the Research Scientist at Farming Smarter. He brings fresh insight and soil expertise to the Agronomy Research program and assists teams with the design and development of research projects while coordinating research grant applications for new projects and publishing project reports for peer review.

He comes from a background in environmental archaeology, studying microfossils and recreating environments from the past. Before coming to Farming Smarter, he completed a Post-Doc with University of Alberta as a pilot study that evaluated the impact of of farm management practices on soil health, nutrient availability, and carbon sequestration for the Regenerative Alberta Living Labs.

Thierry completed his B.Sc. in Biology and M.Sc. in Biogeology at the Utrecht University in The Netherlands. He later completed his PhD in Geography at the University of Southampton in United Kingdom.

Dr. Thierry Fonville,
Farming Smarter

Fueling Farm Innovation

Farming Smarter is dedicated to harnessing, testing, and accelerating the adoption of on-farm innovations. In this session, Ken will explore how the association is building capacity, fostering a culture of innovation, and shaping influence to ensure the long-term resilience and success of Prairie farmers.

Ken Coles leads Farming Smarter as Executive Director. Ken works closely with and listens to his staff to ensure he knows what's going on in each program. Ken's passions include the practical application of science and critical thinking, effective leadership, communication and dialogue, strategic relationships and having a little fun along the way. These passions influence his leadership style, helping the teams define their goals and overcome the obstacles along the way.

Ken focused on agriculture research young and educated himself for the job with a Chemistry Degree from University of Lethbridge and a Masters of Science, Environment and Management from Royal Roads University. He then went to work taking on greater responsibility with every new opportunity.

Through Monsanto Canada Inc., Lethbridge Research Center, Alberta Pool Research and Development, and Agriculture and Agri-food Canada Ken became an excellent research manager and organizational leader. Then he joined Southern Applied Research Association and created Farming Smarter - Alberta's leading crop research institution.

A Big Thank You to Our Great Sponsors!