Recently, the government of BC announced that in conjunction with the federal government, a new program is born: BC On-farm Technology Adoption Program.
The Ministry of Agriculture in BC has chosen a third party, Innovate BC to administer this program. This is one of many agriculture programs jointly funded by the provincial government in partnership with the Federal Government.
With all the challenges facing ranching and farming, owners and managers can add technology if it improves productivity and efficiency in their operations.
Last week I treated myself to a multiday conference held in BC this year: the Canadian Forage and Grasslands Association. The conference theme was “Forage Resilience in a Changing Landscape.”
I mention this conference because it had speakers on many aspects of improving and conserving our forage resources. We all know that forage is in short supply for dairy and other grazing animals such as our sheep, cattle and goat herds.
We all need to tune up our production and management practices for our hay, silage and grazing pastures. And, we can’t forget about the public grazing lands that we steward!
So, what does this have to do with On-Farm technology adoption?
If you as a farm operator think you could improve your operation by adding new technology, this new program might just fund your acquisition.
There are two categories of technologies eligible for qualifying farms (those that have at least $30,000 revenue in each of the past two years):
Automation, Robotics, and Innovative On-farm Growing, Packing or Storage Technologies.
Farm Business Management Technologies.
The technologies must be already commercialized, that is, ready and proven for use.
The program lists examples:
Robotic and automated equipment, farm management software and digital sensors which will help increase production, efficiency and profitability by dealing with increased costs due to inflation and supply chain disruptions, labour shortages and operational costs.
Innovation means something new to Canada, new to BC, new to a region, NEW TO AN APPLICANT. It also means a newly created technology that is different from existing technology that is modified for a new situation.
My take on this is that it is quite open to many technologies, as long as it is new to the operator
As part of the trade show associated with this grazing conference, suppliers of electric fencing supplies have developed monitoring device for electric fence systems which allows one to check the voltage and amperage (fault finding) on extensive fences on a sprawling place by using your smartphone to communicate with sensors at various paddock and intersections of you fence system.
This will be a big time saver for a ranch operator with a multi-pasture grazing system. One wouldn’t have to slog through deep grass and wet bottom land to check to see if game or stray cattle have breached the fences.
Check out the BC Ministry of Agriculture’s website for more.
