Welcome to the 2023 IFAO Conference!

THE FUTURE OF ROBOTICS
Kristen Obeid (OMAFRA), Grant Elgie (Haggerty Robotics)
Robotic solutions are closer than you’d think. Hear all about the Ag Robotics Working Group, the robotics they’ve been testing out and what’s worked, what hasn’t, and why.
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Break

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NITROGEN MANAGEMENT
Claudia Wagner-Riddel (UofG), John Lauzon (UofG), Caleb Niemeyer (Woodrill), Facilitators: Soils@Guelph, Beth Hunter & Dan Petker
Most Economical Rate of Nitrogen – Nitrogen Emissions – Predicting Rates with Organic Matter and Rainfall: When we improve source, timing and placement, your most economical rate will be at a lower N rate. But if you only protect yourself from one type of loss, then you’ll just lose it in a different way. Bring your burning questions about predicting & adapting your nitrogen as your operation, soils and the weather changes for John to tackle! Hot spots. Hot moments. The 5th R? Discuss the most current research findings with Claudia on how you might be losing Nitrogen to get the biggest bang out of your buck. Weather happens. Understanding your water budget is so important for understanding hot moments. And this is where your soil type and soil health play a big roll too. The greater the water holding capacity, the slower a field will lose nitrogen to leaching, but also because it’s wetter – that means more nitrification. Join Caleb to figure this one out.

NITROGEN INHIBITORS
Mark Richards (Dresden), Lori Phillips (AAFC), Tom Bruulsema (IPNI), Facilitators: Dan Petker, Mike Verdonck & Beth Hunter
Effects On and Of Soil Biology – Economics & Agronomics: How do nitrogen inhibitors affect soil biology and how does soil biology affect nitrogen inhibitors? With a focus on urease and nitrogen inhibitors, Lori will delve into how the make-up of nitrifiers in the soil is important for understanding when something is going to work and when it’s not. Mark has built some thoughtful 4R decision-making models. He’ll crunch the economics of using nitrification inhibitors instead of adding more nitrogen and how he considers the volatility of market prices when coming up with a plan.
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Lunch

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MANAGE, MEASURE AND MARKET YOUR CARBON
Karen Haugen-Kozyra (Viresco), Jamie MacKinnon (Anew climate), Alfons Weersink (UofG), Katie Sullivan (IETA), Facilitator: Mark Richards
We’ll paint a big picture of carbon markets before diving all the way in to each topic tomorrow. We’ll cover the ways carbon is sold, how protocols are evolving to address the challenges in implementing them, how Canada’s doing on a global scale & how it will affect Ontario agriculture.
ENERGY SOURCES & ALTERNATIVE FUELS
James Dyck (OMAFRA), Jake Debruyn (OAMFRA, Kate Hickey (HTEC), Anna Crolla (OMAFRA), Laurie Stanton (Stanton Farms), Facilitators: Dave Gowan, Beth Hunter & Mike Groot
Grain Drying & Hydrogen – On-Farm Energy Generation – Feedstocks & Anaerobic Digestors: Fuel will get more and more expensive, but do the solutions on the table stack up to business as usual? We did a hydrogen feasibility study! James will answer some of your questions about it when it comes to grain drying and expand on how to reduce drying costs. To save on energy, you might have to get some skin in the game. Chat with OMAFRA engineers and Laurie Stanton from Stanton Farms, who’s powering an impressive amount of homes in Ilderton! He’ll dive deep on the partnerships, infrastructure & opportunities that he’s built over 20 years of innovating and building this part of his business model.
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Break (sponsored by)

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LIVING LAB – ONTARIO RESEARCH
Mike Groot (Crediton), Greg Vermeersch (Tilsonburg), Woody Van Arkel (Dresden), Andy Van Niekerk (Stayner), Margot McComb (AAFC), Lauren Des Marteaux (AAFC), Colin Little (LTVCA), Eric Page (AAFC), Facilitators: Beth Hunter, Rick Kootstra, Soils@Guelph, Mike Verdonck & Stefan Zehetner
Rotational Grazing in a Field Crop Rotation – Socioeconomic Research – Water Quality Monitoring – Relay Cropping – Pollinator Research – Researcher Round Table – Farmer Round Table: We have A LOT to catch you up on from the Living Lab – Ontario project. The perennial ground cover trial soils are changing is remarkable ways, Greg has been nailing relay cropping, and Mike has tested new tools and brought cattle into his field cropping rotation. We’ll hear about some of the water quality monitoring findings, socioeconomic research and pollinator research from AAFC researchers too!

LET’S TALK SOIL WITH THE SOIL NETWORK
Woody Van Arkel (Dresden), Larry Dyck (Campden), Rick Kootstra (Clinton), Dan Petker (Port Rowan), Patrick Verkley (Kerwood), Peter Kotzeff (Chesley), and Mike Groot (Crediton), Facilitator: Paige Allen
Planting Green & Perennial Cover Crops – The Business of Cover Crops – Rotational Grazing – Cover Crops & Multi-species Cropping: Join the fantastic people of the soil network to talk just that – soil! They’ll lead you through a discussion that is sure to be aligned with your interests, because the first question is: what do you want to talk about? Dive into managing never ending living roots, chat about the business prop of cover crops, talk grazing, and dive in to 60″ corn, multi-cropping & cover crops as a way of packing more in to a rotation.
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Break (sponsored by)

IFAO Watch Party - pre-watch tomorrow's presentations

EQUIPMENT FOR THE FUTURE
Mark Richards (Dresden), Henry Denotter (Essex), Alex Barrie (OMAFRA), Facilitator: Rick Kootstra
Mods, CTF & MOAR AXLES—chat through first step fixes & design elements to guide you to better equipment set-ups. Find the sweet spot between time savings & compaction prevention with design elements and ideas for equipment. Mark & Henry have been building their soil &improving profitability with mods – plan your own mods with them here. Join this panel to explore how to mod, sync and choose equipment for a smoother operation.
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Break

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EQUIPMENT DEEP DIVES
Adrian Guntensperger (Guntensperger Farm Services), Chris Brown (OMAFRA), Ian McDonald (OMAFRA), Lawrence Hogan (Lucknow), Nick Stokman (Strathroy), Alex Barrie (OMAFRA), Mark Richards (Dresden), Henry Dennotter (Kingsville), Facilitators: Dave Gowan, Soils@Guelph, Tim Webster & Beth Hunter
Biostripping Set-ups – Bold New Redesigns for Preventing Compaction – Equipment for Manure Management – Equipment Modification Shop Talk: Hear all about Lawrence and Nick’s set up for biostripping and the process that got them to where they are today. Find the sweet spot between time savings & compaction prevention with design elements and ideas for equipment. Dive in to the innovations in manure application equipment and learn more about how it works on the ground for Adrian. Plan you own mods with Mark &Henry, who have been building their soil &improving profitability with mods.
THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE INNOVATIVE OF ORGANIC AMENDMENTS
Adam Gillespie (UofG), Hugh MacGillivray (ANUVIA), Michael Stangl (Stangl's Enviro Lawn Care), Larry Dyck (Campden), Facilitators: Mike Verdonck, Beth Hunter, Soils@Guelph, & Stefan Zehetner
Organic Amendments & Soil Biology – Microplastics in Composts – Johnson Su Bioreactor Method & Lactobacillus Serums: Bio-based fertilizers use organic feedstocks to turn into nutrients that hit N&P targets while improving soil health—but they have to mean better profitability and reduced nutrient losses—how do they stack up? Hugh will dish out the details. Microplastics have been found in composts and biosolids—but what are they, how much is there, how to we reduce or remove them and what does their presence mean for soil? Adam will tell you everything he found in his research of microplastics in soils. And finally, Mike will dive into the Johnson Su compost method and LAB serum that he’s been making over the years and join Larry in talking through the tips and tricks of using them.
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Lunch
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CARBON MANAGEMENT DEEP DIVE
Adam Gillespie (UofG), Sebastian Belliard (OMAFRA), Facilitator: Dan Petker
How are your management practices affecting your carbon stocks? What is labile carbon? Does combining carbon sequestering practices add up to more, or are there “diminishing returns”? There’s a lot of cool new understandings of how soil organic carbon works and how to work with it, and we’ll get into the nitty gritty here.
Explore the Exhibit Floor
NAVIGATING CARBON MARKETS
Jamie Mackinnon (Anew Carbon), Alfons Weersink (UofG), Facilitators: Andy Van Niekerk & Dan Petker
Selling Carbon Credits – Implications for Ontario Ag: It’s coming. interest in carbon markets is growing and you need to be ready. Get ahead of the trend and get ready to make the oncoming flood of carbon programs work for you and your goals. We’ll dive deep on carbon pricing, how credits are sold, where the money goes, charismatic credits (hint: that’s us), where the data goes, and how it will affect Ontario’s economy and ag sector. Strap in, because this one’s going to be a doozy.
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MODELLING ON-FARM GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS
Ward Smith (AAFC), Al Mussel (Canadian Agrifood Policy Institute), James Dyck (OMAFRA), Facilitators: Dave Gowan & Beth Hunter
Estimating Emission in Agrisuite – Modelling Agriculture – Policies that Reflect Farmer Realities: Emissions calculators, erosion calculators, carbon sequestration calculators – there’s a world of tools being developed to assess how farms impact or provided ecosystem services. These tools, in your hands can help you measure and monitor carbon sequestration (and so much more) on your farm and can be powerful marketing tools. Talk with James about using the Holo model, Ward about what we can learn from the models that will inform these calculators and Al about how to harness the capabilities that we currently have to guide the development of models that reflect farmer realities.