Seeding started on Tuesday at the Ag in Motion site near Langham, about twenty minutes northwest of Saskatoon.
It coincided with a sponsor launch for the fifth edition of Western Canada’s Outdoor Farm Expo, which will run July 16-18.
Three hundred acres is being seeded in the Field of Excellence, a recently acquired piece of land. There will be 140 acres of canola, 80 acres of wheat and 80 acres of soybean.
“The Field of Excellence is a place where companies can work together to showcase their new technologies,” says Rob O’Connor, Ag in Motion show director. “Quite often in industry, you will find that one company promotes its new technology, whether it’s equipment, seeding or crop inputs and they don’t partner with other companies to show the farmer what the true advantage of this new technology can be.”
O’Connor says the Field of Excellence will show farmers what happens when all of the new technologies are used together.
The crop is being seeded into fairly dry soil and additional moisture will be needed in the coming days.
“It would be great if we could get a shot of rain right after the seed goes in the ground, just to ensure we have a nice start,” says Blake Weiseth, the director of field research and demonstrations at Ag in Motion. “We are going to have to seed a little deeper probably to hit that moisture. It will probably vary within the field, but I would suspect for the canola we may have to go beyond the half-inch depth that is standard when conditions are better.”
Ag in Motion is going to have more than 500 exhibitors this year, well above the 200 on hand for the first event. There will also be an additional 15 percent more space than 2018.
Field of Stars will return after a successful inaugural event. The fundraiser for STARS Air Ambulance generated more than half-a-million dollars last year with a supper, auction and concert. This year’s headliners are the Hunter Brothers, who have very close ties to the family farm.